Bartko Pavia Obtains $745,778 Jury Verdict For Injured Woman

Stephen Cox of Bartko Pavia obtained a jury verdict on behalf of a 34 year old woman on March 29, 2013 in San Francisco superior court before Judge Peter Busch.  The verdict of $745,778 included an award of $50,000 for the woman’s husband for loss of consortium.  The case involved a two car accident between a Yellow Cab, in which the woman was a passenger, and another vehicle. The Cab settled before trial for $400,000, on a covenant not to execute, and continued to participate in the trial. The other vehicle, insured by Allstate, with limits of $100,000, failed to pay its policy limits when plaintiffs’ demanded it in February of 2012, putting Allstate into a posture of bad faith. The judgment was entered against Allstate’s insureds on April 19, 2013 in the amount of $406,698 which was the result, after a credit for a portion of the prior settlement was deducted from the verdict. In addition, Allstate turned down a CCP section 998 demand of $350,000 from Plaintiffs in September of 2012, exposing themselves to Plaintiffs’ expert fees and prejudgment interest. The firm is currently in negotiations with the Allstate insureds to represent them in the bad faith case against Allstate. Simon Goodfellow and Lindsay Carson played important roles in obtaining the successful result.