After an accident, medical expenses, rehabilitation expenses and
automobile damages can quickly begin to pile up. If you own insurance, you trust that your claims will be handled quickly and efficiently, so you can continue to focus on your recovery. Unfortunately, during this time of crisis, many insurance companies fail to uphold their end of the agreement. When this happens, your insurance company is said to be acting in “bad faith” and may be acting illegally.
An insurance policy is essentially an agreement or contract between you and the insurance company. If you pay your premiums and keep your policy in good standing, they are obligated to uphold their end of the contract. If they unreasonably deny your claim or prevent you from obtaining reasonable compensation, they may be found guilty of bad faith practices and YOU may be entitled to compensation.
An insurance company may be guilty of bad faith insurance practices if they fail to investigate your claim, refuse to settle a claim, fail to adequately reimburse you, delay your payments unnecessarily, or unreasonably deny your claim. Each of these situations is a breach of contract and Colorado law is on your side.
Your insurance company has a responsibility to you—their client— to negotiate with third parties on your behalf and with your best interest in mind. Unfortunately, insurance companies also have responsibilities to their shareholders to keep their costs low and their profits high. As a result, they may attempt to negotiate claims that best suit their company’s interests—-not yours.
When this happens, it is important to know that the law is on your side. Contact a bad faith attorney immediately to review your case. Your attorney will be able to determine if you are able to sue for breech of contract, breech of fiduciary duty, bad faith or even a violation of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act. If your insurance company is found guilty, you may be entitled to up to THREE times the amount of benefits currently owed to you.
After Insurance Claim Denials: What You Can Do
While it would be nice to trust that insurance companies will honor the policies they issue, the fact is that insurers often deny policyholders’ valid claims because these companies are frequently more interested in preserving their profits over protecting their customers. If you find yourself in a
dispute with your insurance company and are fighting them for a payout, here’s what you should do:
Do NOT accept the denial as the final outcome of your claim – First and foremost, if your valid claim has been denied a payout, do NOT falsely assume that this is the end of your case. In fact, did you know that approximately 10 percent of all claims filed with insurance companies are unfairly denied the first time they are filed? What’s possibly just as shocking are the facts that:
Only about 1 percent of these people whose claims have been denied actually fight back.
Most of these people who challenge insurers end up getting compensation or are able to get more than the initial offers from their insurers.
Don’t accept “filing mistakes” as the explanation for the refusal of your claim – If you don’t fill out claims forms properly, you miss a deadline or you make some other type of filing mistake, insurers may try to deny your claim. However, such denials are generally not legitimate unless insurance companies can prove that your mistakes have prevented them from being able to properly investigate your claim or have somehow “harmed” the company (and this is often not the case).
Read your policy over – Check to see if your policy does, in fact, offer the coverage your insurer is claiming that you do not. Your insurance company should have sent you a complete copy of the terms of your policy, and keeping a copy of the policy is important when insurance disputes arise.
Demand on getting the insurer’s reasons for the denial in writing – If your insurance company has denied your claim, make sure you get the reasons for denial in writing. This can be crucial evidence if you later need to file a lawsuit against the insurer.
Call an attorney – The single most important thing to do when insurers deny your valid claims is to call the Littleton insurance dispute attorneys at the Law Office, as we can thoroughly investigate the dispute, prove when insurance companies are in the wrong and help you get the compensation to which you are entitled.Contact Us for a Free Consult
If your legitimate insurance claim has been denied, our Littleton insurance dispute lawyers welcome you to get more information about your potential case and rights by meeting with us for a free, no obligations initial consultation. To set up a meeting, call us at (303) 562-1507 or email us using the form on this page.
From our law offices in Littleton, we represent clients throughout Colorado, including in the Denver Metro Area, Arapahoe County, Adams County, Jefferson County and in the cities of Lakewood, Highlands Ranch, Lonetree, Castlerock, Westminster, Centennial and Aurora.
How Insurers May Try to Refuse Paying Policyholders
Insurance policies are largely security measures – they are meant to protect us when disaster strikes by providing us with financial support to fix our damaged assets and help us recover from our losses. However, despite the fact that people take out insurance policies and are diligent about paying for them in a timely manner, unfortunately, insurance companies may refuse to pay policyholders when they file legitimate claims against their policies.
Insurance companies may use any number of excuses when trying to avoid paying policyholders for their legitimate claims. Specifically, some of the more common excuses may involve insurers saying that:
Policyholders don’t have active policies and, therefore, can’t make claims against them – If insurers use this excuse, you have been paying your premiums on time, and the company has been accepting your payments, then you have a legal contract, and the insurers’ refusal to pay puts them in breach of this contract.
Their investigators are still looking into your claim – The argument here is that, because the investigation is ongoing, they can’t yet pay you. This delay tactic is typically used by insurers to try to get policyholders to accept settlements that are less than the amount they are due (because the hope is that the long they make policyholders wait, the more desperate they will be for payouts, even if the payouts are far less than what they deserve). Such refusals to pay are not only unethical, but they can also be illegal.
Policyholders aren’t covered for the type of claim they are making and/or they caused the event that led to the damage associated with their claim – When insurers try to pin the blame on policyholders or deny that they have coverage for the type of claim they are making, policyholders should challenge insurers’ allegations and not let them get away with trying to refuse their legitimate claims.
The bottom line is that insurers often try to refuse to pay policyholders as a way of maximizing their own profits (even if they end up violating the law to do so). As a result, policyholders shouldn’t trust insurers and should make sure that, when they are involved in insurance disputes, they have lawyers like us on their side to champion their rights.
Punitive Damages in Colorado
While insurers are legally obligated to honor the contracts they have with policy holders, they are also required by law to act in “good faith” with policyholders. This effectively means that insurance companies have a duty to deal fairly with their policyholders. When insurers fail to meet that duty, are in breach of contract with their policyholders and have acted in bad faith:
Policyholders can sue the insurers for bad faith.
They may be able to collect punitive damages, along with compensatory damages, for their claims.
The Littleton bad faith insurance lawyers at the Littleton Lawyers™ can help these people build the strongest possible cases and get the compensation they deserve.
Also referred to as statutory damages, punitive damages are essentially financial settlements that are awarded to people in various types of civil lawsuits, including bad faith lawsuits. Unlike compensatory damages that are intended to repay people for the losses they have suffered as a result of an accident or event, punitive damages are meant to punish the party that behaved in a negligent, illegal and/or egregious manner and to deter that party from acting similarly in the future.
Different states have different laws regulating how punitive damages are awarded and the maximum amounts of these damages. In Colorado, the laws (§ 10-3-115 and 116) generally hold that:
Punitive damages can be awarded in cases when one party has been proven to have breached a contract with another party (which is the case with bad faith insurance cases).
The maximum amount of statutory damages is double the amount of compensatory damages awarded in a case (not including attorneys’ fees). So, for instance, if a person was awarded $50,000 in compensatory damages in his case, he can be awarded up to $100,000 in punitive damages plus his attorneys’ fees.
Although it can be difficult to prove that an insurance company broke the law and some courts may be adverse to awarding punitive damages, simply the threat of these types of damages can be highly effective in getting insurers to pay policyholders the compensation to which they are entitled (as insurers will likely want to avoid trial and/or being ordered to pay double or triple the amount they would have otherwise had to payout).
Littleton Lawyers™ – Let Us Help You Fight Insurers
At the Littleton Lawyers™, our bad faith insurance attorneys have been fighting insurance companies on behalf of policyholders for more than three decades. Our lawyers know how insurance companies work and how they often try to take advantage of the people that rely on them. We also know how to go up against insurers that practice bad faith in any legal setting, and we have a proven track record of success when it comes to getting our clients the highest possible awards for their
injuries and losses.
A choice to work with the trusted Littleton bad faith insurance attorneys at Littleton Lawyers™ can empower people and give them confidence that:
They will have experienced litigators on their side to defend their rights at every stage of their case.
Their important legal matters will be resolved as favorably and efficiently as possible.
Let’s Talk about Your Rights – Contact Us for a Free Consult
If you believe that your insurer has practiced bad faith with your insurance claim, our Littleton bad faith insurance lawyers encourage you to get more information about your potential case and rights by meeting with us for a free, no obligations initial consultation. To set up a meeting, call us at (303) 562-1507 or email us using the form on this page.
From our law offices in Littleton, we represent clients throughout Colorado, including in the Denver Metro Area, Arapahoe County, Adams County, Jefferson County and in the cities of Lakewood, Highlands Ranch, Lonetree, Castlerock, Westminster, Centennial and Aurora.
