Insurance Company Bad Faith - Organization's Culpability

Types of cases in which compliance program
effectiveness can play a part:

The commission of a crime or tort does not, ipso facto, invalidate the legitimacy or effectiveness of an organizational compliance program. Such acts can occur despite an organization's best efforts to avoid them.

However, if the act is a repetition of a previously committed wrong about which the organization was aware or should have been aware, or involves the same or a similar modus operandi of a previous wrong, or is a known problem within the business sector to which the organization belongs, the act is less likely to be considered to have occurred at random. Recurrence of these types of compliance breaches can increase an organization's culpability and the grounds for punitive damages.

The following are some examples of legal cases where compliance can be an issue:

Insurance Company Bad Faith: forgery of coverage waivers or other documents; forestalling claim payments because of the advanced aged of the insured; blatant refusal to pay rightful claims.

Employer Misconduct: sexual harassment; discrimination in employment; wrongful termination.

Food Health Law: food poisoning at restaurants or other food service venues.

Premises Safety: unsafe working conditions; "accidental" injuries to non-employees; failure to provide security.

Nursing Home and Hospital Care: failure to control infectious environments; failure to monitor, feed, or medicate residents properly; mishandling of patients' personal information.

Fraud: failure to prevent defrauding customers or employees.

Anticompetitive business activities: patent and trademark infringement; price-fixing and other pricing violations; industrial espionage; bribery and kickbacks.

Web Site Design by Expert Communications and Pinsonnault Creative