Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer Tucson

Insurance policies are essential for protecting individuals and businesses against financial loss, but when an insurer fails to honor its obligations in response to a valid insurance claim, a policyholder can be severely impacted.  This is wrong.

Insurance bad faith occurs when an insurance company denies a valid claim, delays payment, or fails to adequately investigate a claim. As insurance bad faith lawyers, we represent policyholders, holding insurers accountable for their contractual obligations and seeking the benefits promised under the policy, and seeking damages when they engage in wrongful practices.

As insurance bad faith lawyers, we handle a range of insurance-related disputes, including:

• Wrongful Claims Practices: When insurers engage in unfair practices—such as unreasonable claim denials, delayed payouts, or refusal to defend claims—we pursue legal action to hold them accountable. Our attorneys can challenge insurance companies and seek compensation for policyholders who have been the victims of wrongful claims practices.

• Insurance Coverage Disputes: Disputes over the scope of coverage, exclusions, and policy interpretations can leave individuals and businesses facing unexpected liabilities. We work with clients to resolve these issues, providing counsel on policy interpretation, coverage limits, and other factors that affect their rights under the policy.

Our goal is to ensure that our clients receive the coverage and compensation they deserve, especially when wrongful claims practices occur. We understand that insurance disputes can be complex and time-sensitive, so we approach each case with a focus on efficiency and results, advocating vigorously for policyholders’ rights.

What Are Examples of Bad Faith?

Let’s suppose that your house burns down and you submit a claim for compensation to the insurance company proving your homeowner’s policy.  The insurance company will normally be under an obligation to begin paying you immediately, including for matters such as substitute housing and also likely for clothing and other damages.

Instead of immediately investigating the fire and paying you for immediate needs, they do nothing.  They may even say that you were fully or partially at fault for the cause of the fire – maybe you left a candle burning which caused the start of the fire, or they blamed faulty wiring or something else that you did for starting the fire.  They then refuse to pay you because they said that you are to blame.

Unless you intentionally started the fire (which is arson), they cannot refuse to pay you, even if your negligence was the cause of the fire.  This is why you have insurance in the first place, so that short of intentionally causing the fire you are protected against your home being burned.

Most insurance companies are not foolish enough to outright deny coverage in this case. Instead, their motivation will often be to minimize your claim in a number of ways, such as not thoroughly investigating the losses that occurred, undervaluing damages and replacement costs, and undervaluing the cost to replace your home.

They may use dishonest claims adjustors.  They may also unduly drag out the process of determining what they actually owe; sometimes taking months to make a damage determination.  One frequently used tactic is to delay the cost of paying what they owe, sometimes repeatedly claiming that “more information is needed” and that additional review time is necessary.  Their tactic is to delay a claim as long as possible so that a homeowner not only becomes frustrated with the delay, but also so that the homeowner may also be experiencing financial distress from the delay.

Then, after months of delay their tactic is to present the homeowner with a “low-ball” settlement, counting on the homeowner to accept the insurance company offer.

This is wrong.

What are the Duties of Insurance Companies When a Claim is Made?

In the case of a loss, insurance companies have a contractual obligation to treat a policyholder in good faith.  They cannot put their own interests ahead of those of a policyholder.

As an example, in the case of the loss of a home, they must make good faith estimates about the actual value of the home and property contents and the replacement cost for such items; they cannot simply write a check for replacement matters based on buying used or inferior furniture, as an example.

When they do not act in good faith and make decisions that are not supported by the insurance policy, they can be liable for bad faith.

What is Insurance Bad Faith?

Insurance bad faith is a separate legal cause of action known as a tort.

For instance, if an insurance company does not pay you what they owe under a policy, you will have a contractual cause of action under the policy; specifically, they need to pay you what they owe you based upon the policy terms.

If they act in bad faith in evaluating and processing your claim, in addition to having a contractual-based claim, you will also have the additional tort-based claim of bad faith.

How Much Can I Get in an Insurance Bad Faith Claims?

At trial, it is up to a jury to determine how much to award for a claim of bad faith (which will be in addition to the amount that the insurance companies owes under an insurance policy).

Insurance bad faith verdicts are meant to punish an insurance company based upon wrongful conduct.  In general, the more outrageous (or “bad”) conduct that occurred, the higher the damage award typically is.

Because the purpose of a bad faith award is to punish the insurance company, an element of the bad faith award can also be based upon the financial size of the insurance company. As a result, jury verdicts in many bad faith cases against large insurance companies are substantial; often significantly higher than the underlying amount owed under the terms of the insurance policy.

Contact Us for a Free Case Evaluation to Learn if You Have a Strong Insurance Bad Faith Case

As insurance bad faith lawyers, we can assess the conduct and actions taken by the insurance company, and provide our legal analysis of whether you have a strong insurance bad faith case.