Advanced Depositions: Strategies for Taking Depositions in Insurance Bad Faith Cases

Our speakers will discuss techniques for handling key depositions in insurance bad faith cases, including order of witnesses, deposition questioning strategy, what exhibits are essential, going outside the claim file to depose insurer witnesses, key depositions of other than claims personnel, e.g. underwriters, independent investigators, outside experts.

PRESENTERS:
 

Bradley A. Levin, a shareholder in the Denver law firm Levin Sitcoff PC, focuses his practice on tort and commercial litigation, especially insurance bad faith and insurance coverage disputes. He has significant litigation and trial experience.  His accomplishments include:

 

• A seven-figure settlement of a bad faith lawsuit against an insurance company for failing to defend a general contractor in a construction defect lawsuit.

 

• A seven-figure settlement of a lawsuit against an insurance company for failing to settle a lawsuit brought against a builder/developer by a homeowner’s association.

 

• A seven-figure settlement in a bad faith and negligence lawsuit regarding a failure to procure appropriate insurance coverage for a construction project

 

• $1,550,000 settlement of bad faith lawsuit against an insurance company arising out of the automobile insurance company’s failure to pay its $50,000 liability limits.

• $3,000,000 settlement of a bad faith lawsuit against an insurance company for failure to defend a class action lawsuit.

 

• Member of trial team Pipeline Strategies and Integrity, LLC v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh

 

Mr. Levin received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, with distinction, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  He graduated from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and served as editor-in-chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.

 

In addition to teaching legal writing and research at Hastings College of Law, Mr. Levin has lectured frequently in the areas of insurance coverage and bad faith law.  He is licensed to practice in California and Colorado.  He is a member of the Denver, Colorado and American Bar Associations.  Mr. Levin belongs to the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association as well as the American Association of Justice.  He serves on the Colorado Supreme Court Committee on Civil Jury Instructions.  Mr. Levin also serves on the Board for National Jewish Health and the Colorado Lawyers Committee.  He has also served as the Chair of the Mountain States Regional Board of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

 

In 2015, Mr. Levin was awarded the Kenneth N. Kripke Lifetime Achievement Award by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association.  He has been selected by his peers as the 2016 Lawyer of the Year for Insurance Litigation in the The Best Lawyers In America®.  He has been recognized by The Best Lawyers In America® 2005- 2019. He was recognized as a Top 10 Colorado Super Lawyer in 2018, and a Top 50 (now Top 100) Colorado Super Lawyer in 2011-2012, and 2014-2018.  He has Martindale Hubbell’s highest AV rating as voted by his peers.

 

 

GUY O. KORNBLUM is the principal in Guy O. Kornblum, A Professional Law Corporation with its principal office in San Francisco, California.  He has specialized as a trial and appellate lawyer for over 45 years.  The firm specializes in a wide range of civil litigation, including serious injury and wrongful death, financial and physical elder abuse, and all aspects of insurance including “bad faith” claims.  Mr. Kornblum himself has handled over 4000 litigated matters to a conclusion and has several million dollar plus cases to his credit.  He has represented hundreds of clients, small businesses, individuals, and large Fortune 500 corporations over his years of practice. He is highly regarded for his courtroom and appellate skills, and his representation of his clients in mediations, where he has a strong track record of successful settlements. 
 
Mr. Kornblum is certified in Civil Trial Law and Civil Pretrial Practice Advocacy by the prestigious National Board of Trial Advocacy, and is a Charter Fellow, American College of Board-Certified Attorneys.   He is also a Life Member of the Multi-Million Dollar and Million Dollar Advocate’s Forum, for those attorneys who have achieved multi- million dollar awards or settlements for their clients; is a Charter Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America Trial Lawyer Honorary”; is a “Top 100” Trial Lawyer; and is listed in the “Top 10” in the Personal Injury and Insurance Litigation fields.  He is listed in the 23d Edition of “The Best Lawyers in America.”  He has been selected as a Super Lawyer each year since 2006, and is a Top Attorney in North America.  Mr. Kornblum is the author of Negotiating and Settling Tort Cases: Reaching the Settlement, published by the Thomson Reuters Publishing Company 5^th ed, which be released in the next few months, and two texts on insurance law and bad faith claim, and over 150 published articles on various topics related to civil litigation and insurance and injury claims.
 
Mr. Kornblum has been lecturing on continuing legal education programs for over 45 years on a local, state and national level.  He has taught programs for numerous providers and regularly lectures for the San Francisco Bar Association, the National Academy for Continuing Legal Education and other CLE providers.  He also has taught law school students at the University of California Law School, San Francisco (formerly the Hastings College of the Law) in the , and at Santa Clara University Law School and San Francisco Law School.
 
Mr. Kornblum has also qualified in both state and federal court as an expert witness on insurance claim handling, settlement value, negotiations and case value,  and on the standard of care applicable to lawyers in civil litigation.