Phone: (831) 661-5851
Fax: (650) 858-8411
Email:
[email protected]

Contact Stephen Pappas

Insurance

Like many attorneys, our first experience out of law school was with a big insurance defense firm … great training.  But it wasn’t long before we were ushered inside the sanctuary – representing the insurance companies themselves, rather than their insured policyholders.  We learned the ins-and-outs of insurance policies and insurance coverage law, with an eye toward helping the insurers prove non-coverage and avoid paying claims.  But that was then.  Now, we love nothing more than turning that knowledge against the insurance companies, helping our clients obtain insurance coverage and proving that  insurers have acted in bad faith.

Step one:  learning how to actually read insurance policies.  If law school was like learning a foreign language, this was like reading Beowulf… at first.  Now, believe it or not, it comes naturally.  To us, not to you.  So let us help you understand your insurance policy better, and help you understand whether your insurance company’s interpretations and actions are reasonable, or in bad faith.  If we are involved early on, it sometimes takes only one letter to get the insurance company to behave reasonably and not in bad faith … far preferable to lengthy litigation.  It can help for the insurance carrier to know that YOU know.

But if your insurance company just can’t seem to find its way clear to being reasonable, and persists in denying coverage in bad faith, this is when we really relish the fight.  This is when our zealous advocacy of your interests really comes into play.  So if you are involved in a dispute with your insurance company, please contact us for assistance.

Insurance Coverage

Is your insurer denying coverage? We have extensive insurance expertise, including business liability insurance, umbrella coverage, homeowners policies, auto policies, life insurance and disability coverages. We’ve even written insurance policies. Learn more about Insurance Coverage.

Bad Faith

Insurers who commit bad faith may be liable for emotional distress, attorneys’ fees, and even punitive damages. An insurer may not engage in unreasonable claims-handling practices designed to prevent the insured from recovering on a claim. Doing so amounts to “bad faith.” Learn more about Bad Faith.

(We were trial counsel for Mark Freeman in West America Insurance Company v. Freeman … a case in which the insurer sued developer Freeman for attorneys fees it spent defending him in a construction defects case; but he counter-sued and received a bad faith judgment against the insurer for $13.3 million, including $12 million in punitive damages.)

 

Contact Stephen Pappas

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P.O. Box 2048
Aptos, CA 95001
Phone: (831) 661-5851
Telefax: (650) 858-8411
(650) 804-9299 (mobile)
[email protected]
Alternate:  [email protected]