The Basics of Bad Faith Insurance Claims

We’ve all heard of bad faith insurance claims. But how much do we really know about this important area of the law? Not much, probably. And this lack of knowledge can cost you. At L.A Insurance now we want all our visitors to understand the questionable areas and concepts of Insurance law.

You don’t have to be a lawyer, though, to understand what bad faith insurance claims are. There are just some basic facts you need to know.

First, when you file an insurance claim with an Insurance company – whether it is an auto, home or health insurer – that insurer is required by law to handle your claim in good faith. This means that if your home was burgled for a significant amount of money, your home insurance company is not supposed to look for ways to escape its duty to investigate the claim or pay for your missing items.

The same holds true when you file a claim with your auto insurer or health-insurance company. These companies must not look for ways to escape their obligations to you, their customer. Doing this constitutes what is legally known as bad faith.

Consumers may file bad faith lawsuits and claims for a large number of reasons. Usually, these claims and lawsuits happen when L.A. Insurance companies or all other insurance companies either deny coverage of a client’s claim or refuse to negotiate settlements on their behalf.

Bad faith lawsuits are typically filed when Insurance companies  deny coverage for unwarranted reasons or fail to provide key information to their clients. Other times, insurers are hit with bad faith lawsuits when they fail to conduct what is considered a reasonable investigation of a claim.

Other cases are filed when clients accuse their insurers of not investigating their claims at all, while still others center on allegations that insurers failed to deny or confirm coverage within a reasonable amount of time.

Bad faith insurance lawsuits can also center on how settlements are reached. Clients may claim that their insurance company offered a significantly lower amount of money to settle than the true value of the claim. In other cases,  L.A. Insurance companies as well as other Insurance companies are sometimes accused of not entering into negotiations at all to help settle a claim.

Finally, many bad faith lawsuits are filed when clients accuse their insurance companies of not disclosing policy limits – limits on the amount of money clients can claim from their insurers – at the time when consumers purchase the policies.

There are no guarantees, of course, when consumers file bad faith lawsuits. The cases, though, will result in either a settlement with the insurance company, an arbitration decision – which is usually binding – or a verdict either for or against the consumer filing the claim.

L.A. Insurance now wants you to know that it’s important to realize that you do have options when you think your insurance company has acted in bad faith. If you think one of your claims was unfairly denied, or that your insurer failed to investigate your claim as thoroughly as possible, talk to a lawyer about the possibility of filing a bad faith lawsuit.

A lawyer will be able to examine the facts of your case and help you decide whether you have a realistic chance of winning your case.