amount equal to the prime rate of interest plus 3%. (2) Award punitive damages against the insurer. (3) Assess court costs and attorney fees against the insurer. 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. Ann. § 8371 (West 2007). 10 . The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently recognized this issue, but saved its resolution for another day: The first question concerns the role that the UIPA may play in a trial of a bad faith claim. Even though it is the Insurance Commissioner who enforces the statute, there are Superior Court decisions that conclude that an insured may ask the court to consider whether an insurer’s violations of the UIPA are evidence that an insurer acted in bad faith under § 8371 in handling a claim. See, e.g., Romano v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 435 Pa.Super. 545, 646 A.2d 1228 (1994) (<HOLDING>) But see Parasco v. Pacific Indem. Co., 920
holding when an insurers alleged breach of its duty of good faith and fair dealing toward its insured involves facts and circumstances within the common knowledge or ordinary experience of an average juror an insured need not introduce expert testimony to establish a bad faith claim holding that the insured may make reference to a section in the uipa to illustrate its insurers bad faith behavior for refusing to pay a loss holding that a jury question as to an insurers bad faith arises when facts permit differing inferences as to the reasonableness of the insurers conduct holding that provisions of the uipa can be utilized to describe conduct constituting bad faith holding that the alleged conduct constituting violations of the uipa and the regulations can be considered in determining whether the insurer acted in bad faith under section 8371