The Georgia Court of Appeals is set to be asked to define what is a bona fide settlement offer in an issue that is “consistently faced” by defense lawyers, according to the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association, which filed an amicus brief in the case. Defense counsel argues that they did not fail to accept a settlement offer, but rather, plaintiffs’ counsel purposefully made the terms hard to follow to “set up a bad faith failure-to-settle claim.”
The defendant-appellant, represented by Laurie Webb Daniel and Matt Friedlander of Webb Daniel Friedlander and J. Holder Smith Jr. of Young Thagard Hoffman, argued this “subject[s] defendants and their insurers to the hardship of full-blown litigation and the risk of a liability judgment that exceeds the amount of insurance coverage.”