Insurance companies must process insurance claims by very tight rules. Adjusters always argue that a claim is worth less than it is or isn’t even a claim.
One or two unscrupulous businesses do not only use these bad faith measures; they are industry-wide tactics used to keep money in the business and away from legitimate claims.
Our attorneys have experience working for some of the biggest insurance providers in the country and are familiar with the strategies employed there.
The extent these businesses will go to to avoid paying the money they are obligated to under your insurance policy is a complete surprise to most individuals.
To avoid ever paying you money, your insurance company would prefer to spend thousands of dollars—more than your insurance claim is worth—on its legal defense.
What Happens to Your Premiums?
The way insurance works is that you pay yearly premiums to the provider. They invest that money, after which it doubles or triples in value. The insurance company will attempt to convince you that filing a claim is not worthwhile.
They want you to give up to keep that money and continue making money off of it. It’s a simple reality that if you never claim your insurance coverage, you are not only putting money in their pockets; by allowing them to keep your premiums, you are also generating more revenue for them.
Insurance firms are for-profit enterprises with a profit motive. Additionally, some of the big insurance firms are publicly traded, meaning their duty is to their shareholders more so than it is to you, the client.
If they can in any way convince their clients that they can’t submit a claim, wouldn’t succeed if they did, or that it would be improper of them to do so, they will have succeeded and may keep pocketing the money.
What Are Common New Jersey Bad Faith Insurance Practices?
It’s critical to comprehend some of the most typical instances of bad faith insurance. If discovered to have acted in bad faith, insurance companies risk severe legal repercussions from the policyholder and additional financial penalties on top of the coverage they should have supplied.
Unnecessary delays in processing claims
In general, insurers will take steps to limit or evade their obligations under the policyholder’s insurance contract. However, the insurer may engage in bad faith insurance practices if they handle, settle, or process an insurance claim with undue delays.
Depending on the situation, defining what constitutes an excessive delay can be difficult. Insurance companies must justify any claim delays, or the delay will likely be viewed as unjustified.
Improper investigation
After you submit a claim, your insurance company is obligated to look into it. This is a fundamental component of any insurance policy, and until the investigation is finished, your insurer cannot approve or payout a claim.
The insurance company may be held liable if it underpays or rejects a claim based on the results of an insufficient inquiry.
Refusal to provide legal defense
A liability insurer has a pretty broad obligation under state law to protect policyholders from claims and lawsuits that could give rise to coverage under the policy.
This covers claims against anything specifically included in the insurance or that might need to be covered. In these situations, the insurer will foot the bill for legal representation, not the policyholder.
Threats to an insured person
Never should an insurance company use abusive language toward policyholders or other parties filing claims. For instance, an insurance company may threaten legal action or criminal penalties for making a claim, even if the claim is for something covered by the policy limitations.
Threats should be reported as quickly as possible to your lawyer and the state insurance board.
Refusing to make a reasonable settlement offer or to make an offer at all
Insurance companies will take every precaution to reduce the amount of money they have to pay in a settlement. This frequently leads to settlement offers that are too low. Insurance firms are required by law to follow fair claims procedures, and it may be considered bad faith to refuse a claim that the relevant insurance policy should cover.
Insurance companies cannot refuse to pay a legitimate claim to boost their profits. If, for instance, you have $50,000 in liability insurance and a claim is made for the full $50,000, but the insurance company only offers $20,000, they may be considered to have engaged in bad faith insurance practices.
Making unreasonable interpretations of an insurance policy
Insurance policies can be complex legal documents, and insurance companies may purposefully interpret the policy terms against the claimant. Insurance companies are legally obligated to be truthful in their representations of what your insurance covers.
If you file a car insurance claim for which you shared some of the blame but are denied coverage, even though comparative negligence regulations judge you entitled to compensation, an insurance provider may be held to have acted in bad faith.
How much does hiring a car accident lawyer cost?
Every motor vehicle accident claim is handled by our New Jersey insurance bad faith attorneys on a no-win, no-fee basis. Our No Win No Fee Promise is as follows. If the claim is unsuccessful, you owe us nothing in the way of attorney’s costs. We get a cut of the compensation.
Additionally, Console and Associates, P.C. advances tens of thousands of dollars in costs for cases that are far along in the litigation phase for each claim made by a client. No matter what their current financial status, we are delighted to shoulder this expense so that our clients can obtain justice.
Fortunately, when you have the New Jersey car accident attorneys at Console and Associates on your side, you never have to worry about finding the money for these costs.
How Can New Jersey Insurance Bad Faith Attorneys Who Have Won Awards Help?
Allowing your insurance provider to withhold payments that they are legally required to make to you is against the law. The knowledgeable New Jersey insurance bad faith attorneys at Console and Associates P.C. are familiar with the tactics used by these insurance companies to contest claims, and we know how to counter them.
Our legal team has competed against some of the biggest names in the field and prevailed.