Five Lessons Claims Professionals Can Learn From John Grisham

Avoiding Bad Faith Judgements and Nuclear Verdicts

Lesson 1: In the Rainmaker the evil insurance company, Great Benefit denies a bone marrow transplant to the dying son of a policyholder. They denied coverage seven times for seven reasons. The first reason being that leukemia is a preexisting condition and therefore not covered condition, and later saying that bone marrow transplants are experimental.

After their final denial, the company’s Vice President of Claims writes in a letter to their policyholder, ‘Mrs. Black on seven prior occasions we have denied your claim. We are denying it for the eighth and final time. You must be Stupid, Stupid, Stupid’. A letter that the applicant attorney uses as a court exhibit blown up for the jury to see while asking the Vice President to read the letter out loud while he is on the stand.

The verdict was $150,000 in actual damages and $50 Million in punitive damages.