First-Party Bad Faith: The Search for a Uniform Standard of Culpability

For almost thirty years, courts have been experimenting with the tort of First-Party Bad Faith. As a consequence, insurance companies are receiving mixed signals about how careful they should be when assessing their first-party claims. This becomes even more confusing when one considers that only half of the states have accepted First-Party Bad Faith. In this Note, Dominick Capozzola argues first that all of the states should accept the tort of First-Party Bad Faith. In so doing, he discusses the reasons for and against First-Party Bad Faith, concluding that the policy reasons supporting the tort far outweigh the traditional contract arguments against it. Capozzola then examines the standards that courts have used when applying First-Party Bad Faith. Looking at these standards in the light of the policies advanced by the tort, Capozzola announces a standard that will properly balance the concerns of the insurance companies against the needs of the insureds