State Farm will pay $450,000 for costs of proof, bad-faith claims

December 6, 2019 – Firm partners Nicholas Carlin and David Given, with the assistance of associate Michael Levinson, have achieved a $450,000 settlement of firm client Aaron Samsky’s insurance bad faith claims against State Farm Insurance.  Mr. Samsky was involved in a rear end collision. After collecting the $15,000 policy limit from the driver who rear-ended him, he made a claim with his insurer State Farm for the balance of his $100,000 underinsured motorist coverage. When State Farm lowballed that claim, offering him $3,920, Mr. Samsky was forced to go to arbitration to collect what he was entitled to from State Farm. In the arbitration, State Farm continued its bad faith conduct by blaming Mr. Samsky for the collision (which State Farm previously determined was 100% the fault of the driver who hit him) and raising non-credible doubts about his well-documented concussion and wrist injury. Following an arbitration award completely vindicating him, Mr. Samsky sought his costs and attorneys’ fees for having to prove those matters, eventually leading to a published appellate decision against State Farm. He also began a bad faith action for State Farm's handling of his claim. The amount State Farm agreed to pay today represents over 100 times State Farm’s original offer to Mr. Samsky.