Has your own insurance company treated you unfairly on a homeowners, automobile, disability or life insurance claim? Each year, thousands of insurance claimants and policyholders experience some degree of bad faith representation by their insurance company. Any of the following issues may constitute bad faith on your insurance company’s part:
unreasonable delay or denial of claim
failure to immediately conduct an adequate investigation
failure to act reasonably in evaluating your claim
failure to promptly pay your legitimate claim
Bad faith insurance involves any matter where an insurance company has breached its implied obligation of good faith and fair dealing. This occurs most often when a consumer or “insured’s” insurance claim is unreasonably delayed, underpaid, inadequately investigated, or entirely denied. Bad faith insurance companies use fraudulent and deceptive tactics to intentionally deny or withhold proper payment of policyholders’ claims. For example, large insurance companies may impose unfair, restrictive guidelines on their claims’ adjusters, making it difficult to process a claim in a timely manner.
These bad faith insurance companies use such tactics to gain
profits. For a long time, the consumer did not easily remedy such
tactics, because a long and difficult arbitration was required to fight
a bad faith claim. Today, a lawyer can help evaluate the claims that
a consumer has had denied or delayed. From healthcare to
automobile insurance and disability claims, consumers should be
fairly represented by the insurance company to whom they pay a
premium, and often, a deductible.
It is important for a bad faith claimant to recognize, however, the
economic and time costs associated with proceeding with a bad
faith claim can be large. As such, bad faith lawyers often require a
case show reasonably large damage amounts in order to pursue a
bad faith claim.
