Short answer
It can be, but only if the right steps are taken. A UM carrier owes you a duty to investigate fairly and to settle when a reasonable insurer would. Florida’s bad-faith statute (section 624.155) requires a civil remedy notice filed with the Department of Financial Services and a 60-day period for the insurer to pay; since the 2023 tort-reform law, a carrier that tenders the policy limits or the amount demanded within 90 days of a claim supported by sufficient evidence is immune, mere negligence is not bad faith, and you have your own duty of good faith. Done correctly, a bad-faith claim can recover your full damages, even above the policy limits, plus fees and interest.
Answered by Kweku Darfoor, Esq., founder of The Injury Advocates, a Plantation-based personal injury law firm serving Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, and South Florida. General information, not legal advice about your situation.
In a UM claim your insurer plays two roles. It is the defendant, entitled to contest fault and damages the way the uninsured driver would. It is also your insurer, bound by Florida’s Insurance Code to acknowledge and act promptly on communications, to investigate and settle claims in good faith, and to not deny claims without a reasonable investigation. Section 624.155 gives an insured a civil remedy when a carrier does not attempt in good faith to settle a claim when, under all the circumstances, it could and should have done so had it acted fairly and honestly toward its insured and with due regard for the insured’s interests.
The 2023 tort-reform law rewrote the ground rules. Besides the 90-day safe harbor, the statute now states that mere negligence alone is insufficient to constitute bad faith; that the insured, the claimant, and their representatives have a duty to act in good faith in furnishing information, making demands, setting deadlines, and attempting to settle; and that a jury may reduce bad-faith damages if that duty was breached. The practical result is that bad-faith cases are built with discipline from the first letter: clear demands, reasonable deadlines, complete documentation, and a record that shows the carrier had everything it needed and did nothing.
None of these is bad faith by itself. Each is a reason to document the file, serve the civil remedy notice when the facts support it, and prepare the UM case for trial, because the verdict in the UM case is what sets the damages in the bad-faith case.
Related: Florida uninsured motorist lawyer · underinsured claims · insurance claims
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No. Bad faith is the failure to settle a claim when the insurer could and should have, judged by the totality of the circumstances. A low offer supported by a real dispute over fault, permanency, or value is negotiation. A low offer in the face of clear liability and documented damages, after a proper demand and the statutory notice, is where bad-faith liability begins.
In Florida, a bad-faith claim against a UM carrier generally requires that liability and the extent of damages be determined first, by settlement, verdict, or arbitration, in addition to the civil remedy notice and cure period. The bad-faith case follows.
Section 627.727(10) allows a bad-faith judgment against a UM carrier to include the total damages, interest, and reasonable attorney’s fees and costs, in addition to the amount above the policy limits.
