Declaratory Judgment With Insurance In Washington
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FAQ
Washington State law provides that you can hold an insurance company — and sometimes even an insurance adjuster — legally liable for bad faith claims handling if their handling of your insurance claim violates The Insurance Fair Conduct Act. This law is a good for consumers.
“The insurer must disclose the insured's policy limits if a reasonable person in the same or similar circumstances would believe that disclosure is in the insured's (as opposed to the claimant's) best interest.
Declaratory judgments are frequently sought in the insurance context, either before or after a claim has been denied. Unlike an injunction, which orders a party to take certain actions, a declaratory judgment simply defines the legal relationship between the two parties under the insurance contract.
Your insurance company client wants to file a declaratory judgment action to determine whether the insurer owes coverage to one of the defendants in a civil lawsuit.
The benefit of a declaratory judgment is that it prevents lawsuits that are likely to be unsuccessful, which saves the courts, and ultimately taxpayers, resources and time. A policyholder that receives an unfavorable declaratory judgment is unlikely to file a lawsuit, as the suit is much more likely to be dismissed.
For an actual controversy to be found, the plaintiff cannot be merely seeking advice from the court, but instead must show that the controversy between parties is substantial, immediate, and real and that the parties have adverse legal interests.
The declaratory judgment is generally considered a statutory remedy and not an equitable remedy in the United States, and is thus not subject to equitable requirements, though there are analogies that can be found in the remedies granted by courts of equity.
§ 2201, which allows federal courts to issue declaratory judgments in the case of “actual controversy.” This statutory requirement in turn stems from the fact that Article III of the U.S. Constitution only provides for the judiciary to adjudicate “cases” and “controversies.” This requirement prevents the judiciary from ...
They are generally requested when a lawsuit is threatened but before the lawsuit is actually filed, when a conflict might exist between a party's or parties' rights under law or under contract and as a way to prevent multiple lawsuits from the same plaintiff.
