The only thing more frustrating than waiting for an insurance claim to be paid is getting word that it has been denied. You pay a lot of money for insurance coverage, and when something happens, and you need to file a claim, you expect it to be there for you.

So, what happens when your insurer says no? Do you have any recourse? The answer is yes. Your insurance policy is an agreement between you and your insurance company. You pay their premiums and in exchange, they provide whatever coverage your policy states.

In some cases, a denial is issued because your policy didn’t provide coverage for what happened to you, and when this happens there is little you can do beyond regret not having read your policy’s fine print more carefully. But in other instances, the issue lies with your insurer.

When your policy provides for coverage and the insurance company either unreasonably delays or outright denies your claim for no good reason, it is referred to as bad faith. A bad faith denial can be contested, and it can be grounds for a lawsuit.

There are many types of bad faith insurance denials, including:

• Offering to provide you with a settlement payment that is far less than what your claim is worth
• Failing to respond to your claim
• Failing to conduct an investigation into your claim
• Issuing a refusal of a claim without having conducted an investigation
• Failing to provide payment of a claim within a reasonable amount of time
• Failing to provide a reasonable explanation of a denial
• Failing to respond to a request for information on policy limits
• Purposefully or unreasonably delaying payment of a claim or withholding payment

Every insurance company has a legal obligation to their policyholders, and the advertisements that they run make it seem as if they are in business to provide compensation after a loss.

The truth is that these companies are for-profit businesses, and they will take every action they can to avoid paying a claim. If you believe that your claim has been denied as a result of bad faith, you have a right to contest their denial, and if you win you can be provided with the compensation that you were originally owed, as well as the costs of pursuing it. For more information on how we can help with your bad faith denial, contact our office today.