Rebecca,
You are 100% correct. Breach of Contract lawsuits, Bad Faith Claims exist due to insurance companies in some cases blatent disreguard for their customers. The insurance companies along with their lobyists have billions and billions of dollars to keep on retainer entire law firms to defend them when a family is strong enough to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit. I did everything in my power to try and save my adjuster money on our claim to the point during a phone conversation he told me I was an \”adjuster\’s dream\”. Due to the fact that I have filed a lawsuit I cannot get to detailed this is by no means a \”fun\” process. Trust me if you think you have a bad faith case talk to an Attorney and ask him how long the insurance can try to starve you out, wear you down physically, mentally and anything else they can think of to get you to say I give. I will have to say in some cases that Insurance companies are sued without merit. When their is a Legimate lawsuit and the case goes before a jury and the jury recognizes that the insurance company did infact commit bad faith and awards monetary damages the insurance companies cry foul.
The truth of the matter is that Bad Faith legislation and common law did not come into existence because the Trial Bar wanted more money. Its growth was the result of insurance companies using the power imbalance they had over their insureds to delay or deny money that was actually due under the policy.
While its true that Bad Faith actions are not the norm, without some sort of repercussion for an insurance company’s bad faith acts (beyond what is mostly available in a state’s version of the Model Act), there is really no strong incentive for insurance companies to pay.
While an individual proposed statute might go too far and reduce the insurance company’s ability to fight questionable claims (which is important), the right statute will deter bad faith by insurance companies by penalizing them when appropriate while still allowing them to challenge debatable claims.
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Rebecca,
You are 100% correct. Breach of Contract lawsuits, Bad Faith Claims exist due to insurance companies in some cases blatent disreguard for their customers. The insurance companies along with their lobyists have billions and billions of dollars to keep on retainer entire law firms to defend them when a family is strong enough to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit. I did everything in my power to try and save my adjuster money on our claim to the point during a phone conversation he told me I was an \”adjuster\’s dream\”. Due to the fact that I have filed a lawsuit I cannot get to detailed this is by no means a \”fun\” process. Trust me if you think you have a bad faith case talk to an Attorney and ask him how long the insurance can try to starve you out, wear you down physically, mentally and anything else they can think of to get you to say I give. I will have to say in some cases that Insurance companies are sued without merit. When their is a Legimate lawsuit and the case goes before a jury and the jury recognizes that the insurance company did infact commit bad faith and awards monetary damages the insurance companies cry foul.
The truth of the matter is that Bad Faith legislation and common law did not come into existence because the Trial Bar wanted more money. Its growth was the result of insurance companies using the power imbalance they had over their insureds to delay or deny money that was actually due under the policy.
While its true that Bad Faith actions are not the norm, without some sort of repercussion for an insurance company’s bad faith acts (beyond what is mostly available in a state’s version of the Model Act), there is really no strong incentive for insurance companies to pay.
While an individual proposed statute might go too far and reduce the insurance company’s ability to fight questionable claims (which is important), the right statute will deter bad faith by insurance companies by penalizing them when appropriate while still allowing them to challenge debatable claims.