In 2019, GFT successfully tried a bad faith case against GoeVera Insurance Company, over improper handling of a plumbing leak claim. The homeowners suffered a loss to their property when a pipe broke in their kitchen. While GeoVera admitted coverage, it didn’t pay for all of the damage to the kitchen. Additionally, even though the homeowners had continuous tile flooring, GeoVera interpreted its own policy in a way to provide less coverage and benefits to the home and in a manner that prevented the homeowners from putting their house back to pre-loss condition. GFT was retained and aggressively challenged GeoVera’s payment and policy interpretation. GFT filed a Civil Remedy Notice to inform GeoVera of its bad faith handling of the claim. GeoVera responded by changing its policy interpretation as to its floor covering endorsement but did not provide additional payment as it related to the actual kitchen loss. Instead, GeoVera put the claim into appraisal, where the homeowners were award almost double the initial payment. The homeowners sued GeoVera for bad faith, and GeoVera defended by claiming it changed its interpretation and that appraisal was the proper policy mechanism to resolve the dispute. GFT argued that GeoVera had the obligation to re-evaluate the claim and not delay payment through the appraisal process. GFT obtained a jury award for every dollar it sought. The damages included not only the extra expenses incurred by the homeowners for the claim and appraisal, but also the increased cost of construction between the entry of the appraisal award and the bad faith trial.