Ohio Supreme Court Makes It Harder to See Your Insurer's Claim File in a Bad-Faith Case

Published March 24, 2026 · Ohio Supreme Court

When your own insurance company drags its feet on an underinsured motorist claim, offers a fraction of what the claim is worth, and pays in full only after you sue, you may have a claim for bad faith. The best evidence of why the company acted the way it did is usually inside its own claim file. On February 26, 2026, the Supreme Court of Ohio made the most sensitive parts of that file harder to get.

The decision is Eddy v. Farmers Property Cas. Ins. Co., Slip Opinion No. 2026-Ohio-626. It is not good news for policyholders. But it does not close the file, and it makes the record you build from the first day of your claim more important than ever.

What happened to the Eddys

In 2020, Melissa and Alexis Eddy were hurt in a crash that was not their fault. The other driver's insurer paid its $100,000 policy limit. The Eddys had $250,000 in underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage with Farmers, so they asked Farmers for the $150,000 difference.

Farmers offered $33,312. After negotiations stalled, the Eddys sued Farmers for breach of contract in August 2021. In April 2022, Farmers paid the full $150,000. Farmers said it did so after receiving new medical information showing the extent of Melissa Eddy's injuries.

The Eddys then filed a second lawsuit, claiming Farmers had delayed their claim in bad faith. In that case they asked for Farmers' entire claim file. Farmers produced most of it, but withheld 20 documents created between the day the Eddys filed their first lawsuit and the day Farmers paid, arguing they were protected communications with its lawyers and attorney work product. The trial court ordered Farmers to produce the whole file through the payment date without reviewing the documents itself, and the First District Court of Appeals agreed.

What the Supreme Court decided

The lower courts relied on a 2001 Supreme Court decision, Boone v. Vanliner Ins. Co., 91 Ohio St.3d 209, 2001-Ohio-27. Boone held that in a case alleging bad-faith denial of coverage, the insured can discover claim-file communications between the insurer and its lawyers about coverage that were created before the claim was denied.

In Eddy, five justices held that Boone has been superseded by statute. In 2007, the General Assembly amended Ohio's attorney-client privilege statute to address insurance bad-faith cases directly. Under R.C. 2317.02(A)(2), as the Court applied it:

1. A threshold showing comes first. The policyholder must make a prima facie showing of bad faith, fraud, or criminal misconduct. "Prima facie" means enough evidence, on its face, to support the claim if it is not rebutted.
2. The judge reviews the documents privately. The court must conduct an in camera inspection, meaning the judge reads the documents in chambers before anything is disclosed.
3. Only certain communications come out. Even then, only communications between the insurer and its lawyer that are "related to the attorney's aiding or furthering" bad faith by the insurer may be disclosed.

The Court treated attorney work product separately. Materials an insurer or its lawyers prepare in anticipation of litigation are protected by Civil Rule 26(B)(4) and can be obtained only on a showing of good cause. The Court rejected the idea that bad-faith cases carry a special exception to that rule.

The case was sent back to the trial court to apply those steps. The Court did not decide whether Farmers acted in bad faith. Two justices dissented on the ground that the Court should not have taken the appeal at all.

Who this hurts

Bad-faith claims against your own insurer are one of the few tools policyholders have when a company stalls a UM/UIM or MedPay claim. They matter most in serious-injury cases, where months of delay can mean collection calls, lost savings, and pressure to accept a low number.

Eddy shifts some of the burden onto the injured person. Before you can see what an insurer's lawyers told it, you must already have enough evidence to make a prima facie case of bad faith. The documents most likely to show deliberate delay can be the hardest to reach.

What still works

This is where an honest reading of the decision matters, because it leaves important paths open.

Most of the claim file is still discoverable. Eddy is about two categories: attorney-client communications and work product. The Court's instructions to the trial court state that documents falling in neither category remain subject to ordinary discovery. Adjusters' notes, evaluations, and internal claim-handling communications that are not legal advice and were not prepared in anticipation of litigation are not shielded by this decision. In Eddy itself, Farmers produced most of its file.

Your own records can make the prima facie case. The threshold showing is built from evidence you can control:

• the date you reported the crash and the date you made the UIM claim;
• every medical record and bill you sent, and when;
• every written demand, and the insurer's written response or silence;
• every offer, with the date and any stated reason;
• the gap between the offer and the eventual payment.

A clear timeline showing that a company had the medical proof and still sat on a lowball offer is exactly the kind of evidence that can satisfy the statute. Our guide chapter on preserving documents and records explains how to keep every letter, email, and call log, and our chapter on dealing with insurance adjusters explains the good-faith duty your own insurer owes you.

The duty of good faith has not changed. Eddy is a ruling about discovery, not about what counts as bad faith. Ohio insurers still must have a reasonable justification for how they handle and pay their own policyholders' claims. We discussed a recent appellate decision reviving a crash victim's bad-faith claim in our post on bad-faith claims against your own insurer.

What this means for you

If you are making a UM/UIM claim, assume from the beginning that you may need to prove bad faith later, without the insurer's legal file. Put your demands in writing. Send medical proof with a cover letter and keep a copy. Ask the adjuster to explain any offer in writing. And get the coverage question right at the start; as we explained in our post on listed drivers and UIM coverage, insurers sometimes deny coverage that the policy actually provides. Our UM/UIM claims page explains how these claims proceed.

A lawyer involved early can build that record as the claim unfolds rather than trying to reconstruct it later. After Eddy, that matters more than it used to.