Insurance Bad Faith

Insurance companies do not always look out for your best interest. As your fiduciary, they must treat you with good faith. Unfortunately, they sometimes treat you wrongly (bad faith) even though you have paid them to protect you if something happens. It is not always when the loss is substantial that they try to avoid paying. Insurance companies can mistreat you in small losses as well – savings on thousands of small claims can result in significant profits for the insurance company. When you contact your insurance company for help, it must:

• Act fairly and in good faith;
• Not put its financial interests ahead of yours;
• Conduct a reasonable and adequate investigation and not just look for facts that might support a denial of coverage, but also search for information that supports payment of the claim; and
• Timely pay what they probably owe – it can’t stall or delay payment.

Insurance companies have buildings full of insurance personnel. These employees must assist the policyholders. They should not underpay or look for ways to underpay claims. When someone has made a claim against you, your insurance company is required to defend you. Further, they are required to make payments that reasonably protect you from financial exposure.