When you have been injured, you know that it is a long, arduous journey as you struggle with the remnants of the injury – from months or years down the road. As if the injury wasn’t bad enough, now you have to deal with the insurance company involved in your case so that you can get the compensation you deserve after injuries have taken ahold of your life. But something suspicious tells you that your insurance is not practicing “good” faith. When your insurance company does not do everything in their nature to investigate, negotiate, or settle a claim, they could be acting in bad faith, and you may wonder what options you have.
Bad Faith Insurance Tactics
There are some bad faith insurance tactics that are more common than others. When they have acted in bad faith, you may have a cause of action against the insurance company when you are able to prove that the insurer’s conduct was vastly unreasonable and that they knew that they were acting recklessly when dealing with your claim.
Unreasonably Long Delay: Sometimes you will find that an insurance company drags out their investigation so that they don’t have to agree to pay right away. In many cases, it could end up in a policyholder giving up on pursuing the claim, which is how they “win” against you. This could range anywhere from a few weeks to several months as you await results.
Investigation Failure: Insurance companies have a duty to conduct thorough investigations into your claim. Let’s say that your car was damaged while parked on the street; what happens if the insurance adjuster does not come to take a look at the car in person or avoids photographs of the incident? They have clearly not thoroughly investigated.
Deceptive Practices: An insurance company could fail to tell you bits and pieces of your policy, or fail to notify you of a filing deadline so that you intentionally miss it.
Offering Too Little: In these cases, your claim may be worth a lot, but your insurance company is only willing to pay very little. If there is a valid claim, this is a bad faith move, especially when they are lowballing and there is evidence of such.
Refusal to Pay: Insurance companies cannot deny a claim that should be covered by the policy, or else they are acting in bad faith. If you have been hit by a driver and they admitted fault, and you should reasonably be paid for this, your company has to follow through.
Making Your Claim
Insurance companies have strong incentives for making a profit, which means that, the less they pay, the more they keep to themselves. Many companies know that a policyholder will not file a claim against them and they will get away with these actions of bad faith. You need an attorney on your side if you have fallen victim to bad faith by an insurance company and can prove that they did not treat your claim fairly. At the Leiva Law Firm, we have the experience to prove that your case was not treated fairly and that you should be paid in full after bad faith was used by the insurer. Call us today for more information at 818-519-4465.
Sources:
https://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/bad-faith-lawyers.html?intakeredesigned=1
