Dan Schiavetta | Russo & Gould LLP

Dan Schiavetta, of counsel to Russo & Gould LLP in New York City, has been a litigator for 30 years and is admitted in all New York and New Jersey state and federal courts and the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals. For 20 years he defended the Catholic Church in sexual abuse cases and other matters. He also has wide experience in insurance coverage litigation, nursing home defense, and appellate practice. He is a 1992 graduate of the University of California, Davis School of Law where he was a law review editor and moot court judge. In his previous career as a social worker, he was the director of a crisis center and 24-hour hotline. He is also the author of “The Supreme Court for Short Attention Spans: 2000 Tiny Case Summaries Too Short to Bore You”, available on Amazon.

Michelle Meyers | Singleton Schreiber

Michelle Meyers is a Partner at Singleton Schreiber and is a member of our Fire Litigation, Public Entity Law, Personal Injury and Wrongful Death, Insurance Recovery and Bad Faith practice groups. A seasoned trial and policy holder attorney, she has spent her career litigating complex civil matters involving personal injury, mass torts, civil rights, and insurance coverage in federal and state courts.

Ms. Meyers has extensive trial experience in insurance litigation. She recently tried an insurance coverage matter, wherein the jury found in favor of the Plaintiff by concluding that the insurance company improperly denied the Plaintiff’s request for payment of life insurance benefits.

Before joining Singleton Schreiber, Ms. Meyers served as a deputy attorney for the State of California Department of Transportation, as a supervising trial attorney for the City of Oakland, and as an associate and an insurance coverage partner at a firm in Oakland, California. She was the lead defense strategist for the City of Oakland in civil and criminal cases arising from the “Ghost Ship” fire, the deadliest fire in the history of Oakland.

Ms. Meyers earned a B.A. in Political Science from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, in 2000, where she was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha National Honors Society. She earned her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2004 and is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in California and Nevada and in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Outside the office, Ms. Meyers enjoys spending time on the sports field with her family and two crazy border collies.

Chris Johnson | Highbanks Insurance Professionals

Mr. Johnson is a Managing Director of Highbanks Insurance Professionals (HIP), providing insurance claims consulting on coverage, liability, damages, good faith claims handling policies and procedures, bad faith claims handling, extra-contractual company exposures, volatile claims identification and reserve adequacy.

Mr. Johnson and HIP offer a wide variety of services to insurers, brokers, agents, TPAs, policyholders and attorneys/law firms. These include review and consulting on individual claims and claim portfolios, auditing, review of claims procedures and file handler guidelines, and serving as an expert witness.

Mr. Johnson is a licensed attorney and claims professional with over 40 years of experience, including claims handling, claims management, trial/litigation and litigation management, bad faith claims review and portfolio management, and house trial counsel management. He has accumulated a depth of experience and understanding of insurance contracts, insuring agreements, company policies and procedures, claims department protocols, claims handling decision-making, retaining and directing/managing outside defense counsel, and settlement resolution strategies.

Mr. Johnson’s experience includes claims handling, legal consulting and litigation management on first- and third-party claims on property, casualty, homeowner, auto, UM-UIM, umbrella, excess and reinsurance policies. His claims experience ranges from matters arising out of auto accidents, house fires, theft and conversion, water/wind/hail damage, to major-event claims such as Hurricane Katrina, the Gulf Oil Spill, and catastrophic train derailments and explosions.

Session I – Beyond the Policy Limits: Avoiding and Proving Insurance Bad Faith Claims | 1:00pm – 3:10pm

• Low-balling and other bad faith handling of first-party claims
• Situations where liability insurers abandon their insureds or recklessly refuse to settle within policy limits
• What must be proved by policyholders to show bad faith

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

• What damages are recoverable
• Strategies insurers should follow to avoid bad faith claims, and that insureds should follow to prove bad faith if it exists
• Real-life examples

Break | 3:10pm – 3:20pm

Session II – Importance of Early Preparation and File Documentation | 3:20pm – 4:20pm

• Written communication with insurer
• Document all interactions
• Discovery requests
• Overlooked discovery areas
• Effective depositions
• Pre-litigation communication
• Statutory demand language
• Ensure client’s compliance
• EUOs, recorded statements, and IMEs
• Expert witness preparation