INSURANCE DISPUTES LAWYER

We often believe that the companies we employ to aid us through life will always be there—accountable and trustworthy. For insurance companies, it is their duty to honor a claim on your part. Unfortunately, these institutions do not always keep their word, but instead look for ways to minimize your claim in order to minimize liability or flat-out refuse to pay.

When an insurance company refuses to fulfill its obligations to its clients, it is proclaimed “bad faith.” These companies appear to hold unlimited power, backed by teams or professionals, investigators, and forensic scientists to back their side of the story in order to avoid paying out a claim. Families are bullied by their seemingly inexhaustible power, becoming victims yet again under the insurance provider.

California observes an implied covenant of good faith-- insurance providers are required to use fair dealing when evaluating claims. If this is not observed, a client may sue the insurance company for bad faith and breach of contract.

Examples of bad faith include an insurance company’s failure to conduct a thorough investigation, refusal to settle a client’s claim in a timely manner, and the unreasonable denial of payment for a claim. Good faith is required for all insurance providers, including automobile, homeowner, health, life, disability, and accidental death insurance.

Examples of Bad Faith:

• Misrepresenting facts related to coverage.
  
  
• Failure to act with reasonable promptness in completing the claim, possibly ignoring the statute of limitations.
  
  
• Refusing to or failure to conduct a thorough investigation of the claim and its attributes.
  
  
• After proof of loss statements are completed, the insurance company does not complete the claim in a reasonable amount of time.
  
  
• Failure in protecting the assets and interests of the policyholder.
  
  
• Putting the policyholder’s financial interests below those of the financial institution or insurance company.
  
  
• Settling the claim for a lesser amount than what the insured it entitled to.
  
  
• Attempts to undervalue a claim.
  
  
• Refusing to reasonably explain a refusal to a claim.

Establish a bad faith claim can be a tricky situation. It is a process best left to an experienced insurance disputes attorney who is intimately familiar with practices of insurance companies in San Diego. The bad faith victim may have to prove that the insurance company has breached the covenant of good faith, and has refused to proceed in fairly dealing with the claim in the client’s best interest.