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Sometimes being Goliath isnt all that it's cracked up to be.
Bradley Levin realized that. He decided that during the few years he defended insurance companies against claims of bad faith and nonpayment, he was sitting on the wrong side of the table.
"In a lot of ways, representing policyholders fit into my beliefs of right and wrong, justice and fairness," said Levin, one of the founding partners of Roberts Levin & Patterson PC, which formed in 2000. "It's important for people to have rights and have those rights recognized."
He also recognized what he would be up against. During his transition period from carrier defendant to policyholder advocate, one of Levin's early clients had a little boy who developed cancer and needed an operation to keep him alive. The client's insurance company refused to pay for the operation because, it said, the little boy wasn't listed on the policy.
"What it came down to was the application didn't have room for all the names of the children on the form," Levin said. "There were five kids and two parents but only six lines on the form. The agent who submitted the application said not to worry about it. But because the kid's name wasnt on the policy, there was no coverage."
Although Levin managed to resolve the issue with the insurance company, the...