After you’re hurt in a serious accident or have a claim for damages to your property, the last thing you need is an insurer that tries to take advantage of you. They do so, but trying to quickly offer you an inappropriate settlement amount or by failing to respond to your calls. It can be hard to know how far along in the process you are or what to do. But the law actually controls that and with a good lawyer representing you, the process could be speeded up.
Insurance companies sometimes use these tactics to get you to settle your claim for less than it is worth or to drop your claim. Insurance companies may take as long as they can to investigate or may fail to return calls to see if you’ll stop following up. These are bad faith insurance tactics that need to be addressed by a lawyer as soon as possible.
What is bad-faith insurance?
The term “bad-faith insurance” refers to any insurer’s attempt not to fulfill its contract or obligations to its customers. Failing to return calls or investigate claims within a timely manner are two possible signs of bad-faith insurance. Denying claims when they should be approved is as well.
Insurance companies act in bad faith when they misrepresent anything about the policy to avoid paying out a claim or simply fail to timely make the payments. Whether they’re making unreasonable demands or just taking a very long time to investigate the claim, you need to be aware that the insurance company could be acting in bad faith. A lawyer who is familar w it these laws can help you evaluate this.
What can you do to speed up a delayed insurance claim?
If you have tried to reach out and the delays are beyond what is reasonable, one of the things you might want to do now is to talk to an attorney who can help. That attorney will know the best way to deal with this violation of the law.
Sometimes, knowing that an attorney has gotten involved is enough to spur the insurance company into action. In other cases, you may need to file a claim against the insurance company in court, so that it knows that you are serious about holding it to its obligations and stop it from acting in bad faith.
