In an ideal world, purchasing insurance of any kind would be a fairly straightforward process. You select the coverage you want and pay your monthly premiums on time, and in turn, your provider helps you out if you ever need the assistance. In practice, filing an insurance claim can be an unusually complicated and frustrating process, during which it may feel like your provider is actively trying to deny you coverage. In some cases, they are doing that to an illegal degree.
If you believe your insurance claim was rejected in “bad faith,” a St. Clairsville insurance bad faith lawyer could discuss the possibility of civil litigation to set things right. With guidance from a seasoned personal injury attorney who has experience in these types of claims, you could have a much better chance of obtaining the compensation you are owed under your insurance policy and possibly recovering additional damages caused by your provider’s misconduct. We could recover a significant sum for you, such as in our $11.5 million case, Cox vs. Personal Service Insurance Company.
Every company that provides a service to customers in exchange for compensation has a duty to act in “good faith.” In other words, they must act with a genuine intention of fulfilling the agreed-upon terms of that service. Ohio court precedent holds that an insurance provider has breached this duty—and therefore opened itself to litigation—if they refuse a claim from you, knowing they have no “lawful basis” for doing so, or if they reject a claim while failing to identify whether they have a lawful basis to do so.
In situations like this, you might presume intentional bad faith by an insurance provider if that provider demonstrates “reckless indifference” to the relevant factual information and available proof that says your claim is valid.
However, bad faith litigation might not be possible if there is reasonable disagreement about how a particular policy or law applies to your situation. Additionally, as a St. Clairsville bad faith insurance attorney could explain, you only have standing to file suit if you were directly impacted by an insurer’s bad faith response. The same right does not apply to third-party beneficiaries or parties injured due to your own actions.
Bad-faith denials of insurance claims can happen in numerous contexts, including:
In any of these scenarios, an insurance bad faith lawyer in St. Clairsville could provide vital assistance with collecting relevant evidence proving bad faith by the insurer, documenting your own good-faith efforts to resolve the issue, and quantifying the value of the denied claim and other ensuing losses. In some cases, successful lawsuits may allow you to recover money for attorney’s fees and additional punitive damages in addition to the amount of compensation originally requested through the insurance claim.
“Bad faith” is a fairly subjective term when it comes to insurance negotiations despite the long history of court rulings in Ohio that concern this matter. If your insurance provider wrongfully rejected your claim or refuses to pay what it is rightfully worth, representation from seasoned legal counsel could be essential to resolving the problem in a way that is fair and beneficial to you.
A St. Clairsville insurance bad faith lawyer could explain your rights during a private consultation. Schedule yours by calling today.
