New Jersey Insurance Fair Conduct Act: Webinar

This program, on April 13, 2022, discussed many questions raised by the New Jersey Insurance Fair Conduct Act (IFCA, formerly Senate Bill 1559) that Governor Phil Murphy signed into law on January 18, 2022. The IFCA creates a statutory cause of action for insurance bad faith in the handling and payment of claims for uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) benefits. The enactment of the statute ended—for a time—a years-long debate about the merits of expanding insurance bad faith liability. But the drafting of the statute as enacted and its implementation raise many questions.

• Background (UM/UIM insurance, bad faith)
• Legislative history and structure of the act
• The Basics: Who? For what? How much? When?
• The Keys: Unreasonable delay or unreasonable denial, and UCSPA violations
• Going forward

Speakers:

• Gerald H. Baker, Counsel, Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, P.C.
• Adam Scales, Professor, Rutgers Law School; Co-Director, Rutgers Center for Risk and Responsibility
• Jeffrey Stempel, Doris S. and Theodore B. Lee Professor of Law, William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV
• Jessica D. Wachstein, Shareholder, Marshall Dennehey