Some insurance law attorneys work exclusively and diligently on behalf of policyholders dealing with problematic insurers concerning virtually every type of coverage matter.
For many individuals and families, their insurance disputes spotlight issues relevant to health, long-term care, disability, personal/real property, vehicles and additional matters. Business owners, too, face policy-linked challenges, which routinely relate to claims concerning commercial liability and property insurance.
Today’s blog post focuses solely on the latter class of claimants. In doing so, it notes a central observation stated in a recent article on commercial policyholders’ insurance-linked challenges. That piece underscores the insurance industry reality that, while insurers are legally bound to perform their contractual duties, some actors “overlook [policyholders’] interests in a bid to maximize their profits.”
No one is too surprised by that assertion, right? Notwithstanding its obviousness, though, it does serve to underscore a point that merits acknowledgment and, often, legal reprisal
Namely, that is this: Some insurers don’t play fair in their response to bona-fide commercial insurance coverage claims. Rather, they purposely engage in bad faith through tactics that run a broad gamut. The above article spotlights several unlawful practices that, if unchallenged, can materially harm policyholders. Those include these strategies:
- Unreasonable delays (many policyholders intuitively know when stalling tactics have reached such a point)
- Lowball offers (a coverage check that doesn’t remotely cover damages can glaringly evidence bad faith)
- Inadequate investigation
- Threats of reprisal (incredibly, some insurers threaten litigation against policyholders with valid claims)
- Outright claim denial
Those bullet points are merely representative examples of insurance bad faith from a much longer real-life list that many of our readers can likely add to.
Commercial insurance policyholders have a legitimate and compelling expectation that their insurer will act promptly and in good faith when presented with a bona-fide damage claim. When that does not turn out to be the case, they can seek to promote a fairer – that is, a legally required – outcome by securing representation from proven pro-policyholder insurance law attorneys.