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Proven Results
Attorney Eric J. Ratinoff obtains a high six-figure settlement in an insurance bad faith claim arising out of a fire loss.
Insurance News
California
regulators
hold hearing on major health insurer, Blue Cross
San Francisco Chronicle — August
7, 2007
Home
Insurers' Secret Tactics Cheat Fire Victims, Hike Profits
Bloomberg.com —
August 3, 2007
Aged,
Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers
New York Times —
March 26, 2007
Insurance companies fight paying billions in claimsCNN.com, Anderson Cooper 360° — February 07, 2007
Related Resources
For
CA Consumers: Overview of Insurance
California Department of Insurance (DOI) Web site
A.M.
Best's Consumer Insurance Information Center
A.M. Best Web site
Insurance Bad Faith
Americans
spend millions of dollars annually to purchase insurance policies that
are supposed to protect them if they are injured, disabled, or in case
they accidentally injure someone else.
Unfortunately, insurers frequently
refuse to pay the legitimate claims of their policyholders. When this happens,
the insured policyholder may need legal help to force the insurance company
either to pay or face a claim of insurance bad faith that could cost the
insurance company much more than the original claim. 
Read
actual KCR cases: Making the Insurance Company Pay
Topics on this page:
- What is “Insurance Bad Faith?”
- Types of Insurance in Insurance Bad Faith Cases
- What You Can Recover (Insurance Bad Faith Damages)
- Examples of Insurance Bad Faith
- ERISA Insurance Policies
- What to Do if You Think an Insurance Company is Acting in Bad Faith
- Contact an Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer
It is important to have tough and experienced attorneys on your side when dealing with large and powerful insurance companies. The insurance bad faith attorneys of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff have recovered millions of dollars on behalf of clients whose reasonable and valid insurance claims were delayed, denied or underpaid by insurance companies acting in bad faith.
What is Insurance Bad Faith?
Insurance bad faith occurs when an insurance company ignores
its duties and fails to fulfill its end of an insurance contract by refusing
to pay a valid claim, terminates a policy without due cause, delays payment
or breaches the contract in some other manner.
All insurance policies are “contracts” between the insurance company and the person who pays for the policy. In these contracts the insurance company is required to treat its insured with “good faith and fair dealing” when a claim is made against the policy. This means that the company cannot just look for reasons not to pay.
The insurance company has a duty to:
- Conduct a full and prompt investigation of the claim
- Give fair consideration to reasons why the claim should be paid
- Notify you of its decision promptly
- Give you the reasons for denial of the claim in writing
An insurance company may not place its own financial interests before the interests of its insured.
Types of Insurance in Bad Faith Cases
Insurance bad faith cases can involve all types of insurance including:
- Homeowner’s insurance
- Auto insurance
- Uninsured motorist insurance
- Mortgage life insurance
- Health insurance
- Disability insurance
- Business insurance, e.g., commercial and small business insurance
- Errors and omissions insurance
- Flood insurance
What You Can Recover — Insurance Bad Faith Damages
A successful bad faith claim against an insurance company could force the company to pay you:
- Everything that it owes under the policy, plus interest (called “contractual
damages”)
- Any out-of-pocket expenses that you had to pay because the claim was
denied (called “consequential damages”) such as paying for
a rental car or replacing a damaged roof
- Payment for any mental or emotional distress that you had because of
the denial (called “extra-contractual damages”)
- Payment to “punish” the insurance company and to discourage it from wrongfully denying valid claims in the future (called “punitive or exemplary damages”)
Punitive damages are the most difficult to recover because you must prove that the insurance company acted in a malicious or fraudulent way, or intended to treat you unfairly (with oppression).
Examples of Insurance Bad Faith
- Unreasonable delay in paying a valid claim
- Refusal to pay disability insurance benefits
- Denial of a valid claim without adequate investigation, or ignoring the findings of an investigation
- Denial of employee health benefits / Health insurance denial of benefits
- Termination of an insurance policy after a claim has been made
- Unreasonable refusal or failure to defend a policyholder who has been sued for injuring someone else (such as in an auto accident, when the policyholder is the driver who caused the accident)
- Unreasonably offering to settle a claim for much less than its fair value
- Placing the policyholder in danger of personally having to pay a much larger award by unreasonably refusing to pay a claim within policy limits
- Improper or incompetent handling of claims or reserving insufficient funds to pay the claim
ERISA Insurance Policies
In addition to the examples above, the insurance bad faith attorneys of Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff have special expertise dealing with group insurance policies that provide employee benefits, such as employee health or disability insurance. Many such insurance providers claim to be protected from insurance bad faith law suits under the federal legislation known as ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974).
Unfortunately for consumers who have been abused by these companies, the ERISA regulations do protect them from most of the damages available through bad faith litigation, such as punitive damages.
Never trust insurers’ claims that they are shielded by ERISA. Many policies are outside of ERISA regulation, and are subject to bad faith law suits.
Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff insurance bad faith attorneys insist on reviewing the full insurance policy and other critical documents to determine whether or not ERISA regulations apply. In many cases, this careful review of the policy shows that ERISA does not apply, allowing for a full bad faith lawsuit to be filed with claims for all types of damages. Even when ERISA does apply, the insurance company may be required to pay your attorneys fees when we succeed in making them pay benefits.
What to do
What to do if you think an insurance company is acting in bad faith...
Memories fade. Protect yourself and strengthen your case by doing the following:
- Get it in writing: Insist that every communication from the insurance
company be put in writing, either as a letter or email, and save it.
- Put
it in writing: Even when you have short phone conversations with
the company, jot down notes about the discussion, including the name of
the person you spoke to and the date of the call. Send the company letters
or emails confirming the details of the discussion.
- Start a file: Keep a separate
file folder, envelope, or drawer where you can save
every letter, note and email. Print out every email
from the company and save those in the paper file, as well as on your computer.
- Get
legal help: Remember that every state has different legal
deadlines (statutes of limitations) for filing lawsuits. Don’t
wait too long to get legal help. Insurance bad faith claims are
extremely complex cases that usually require the help of legal experts.
Contact an Insurance Bad Faith Attorney
Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff insurance bad faith attorneys have years of experience helping victims of insurance bad faith by forcing the insurance companies to pay valid claims, as well as to pay additional related damages, including punitive damages. We have the expertise and the resources to negotiate settlements, or, when necessary, to take these complex cases through arbitration or trial.
FOR A FREE CASE EVALUATION
If you think you have been the victim of insurance
company bad faith, please fill out and submit the contact form on this page for a free
case evaluation or call us toll-free at (888) 285-3333.
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