VA · jury_instructions
Va. Model Jury Instr. Civ. No. 47.710
Duty to Settle
If a liability insurer has an opportunity to settle a claim against its insured for an amount within
the policy limits and it refuses in bad faith to settle the claim, it is liable for the whole amount of
the judgment against the insured, even if the judgment exceeds the policy limit. [If the insurer’s
decision not to settle the claim is made in good faith, the insurer is not liable for the amount of the
judgment which exceeds the policy limits.]
A good faith decision is one that is made honestly and intelligently and is reasonable in light of
the insurer’s expertise in the field.
A bad faith decision is one that is made in furtherance of the insurer’s own interests, with
intentional disregard of the financial interest of the insured.
History
Virginia Model Jury Instructions – Civil, Release 26, April 2026. The unannotated set, posted by the Supreme Court of Virginia at vacourts.gov; the book states that it is made available with the permission of the publisher, Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.
Provenance
- Source
- vacourts.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-11
- Edition
- civ-2026-04-01
- Content hash
5eeeaef892d0e95945f0bdafc387c335f5c0252aeec7ca0efcafb660d5f167aa
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