Insurance Coverage Disputes & Bad Faith Claims

Is your insurance company unfairly denying your claim or disputing coverage amounts?

Personal injury cases can often involve insurance coverage disputes or insurance company bad faith claims. If an individual is injured and there is an existing liability policy or an uninsured motorist policy, the injured person often expects full coverage. The injured party then makes a claim against the insured party's insurance company.

However, sometimes, the insurance company unreasonably denies or delays payment of benefits, fails to provide coverage or fails to settle the case within the limits of the insurance policy. If this has happened to you, you have likely suffered “insurance bad faith,” and you may need to hire an insurance disputes lawyer that can get you the benefits to which you are entitled.

If you or a family member has struggled with an insurance claim, Seattle Attorney Chris Davis and the Davis Law Group, P.S. can help you. Having substantial experience with insurance disputes and bad faith claims and trying may of these cases in court, the Davis Law Group has the skill and expertise necessary to help you.

FREE Case Review
Contact us now for a FREE conversation about your insurance dispute or bad faith claim. There is no obligation to hire a lawyer.  We are usually retained on a contingency fee basis. There is no fee until our personal injury attorneys successfully recover fair compensation for you.

Library for Insurance Coverage Disputes & Bad Faith Claims:

• 'Chameleon-Like' Insurance Firm Accused Of Fraud   
  Description: United Services Automobile Association, one of the nation's largest insurance companies, has for years argued on both sides of the fence about whether suits against it for non-payment of claims should be argued in state or federal court.
  
  In more than 170 instances throughout the United States, the Texas-based company has convinced both federal and state judges that it was being sued in the wrong court, failing to reveal that it had argued the other way in other cases, frequently simultaneously.
• ARTICLE: Crash victim beats the odds in high court   
  Description: A Seattle woman's 10-year battle for justice was rewarded yesterday by the state's highest court, which ruled she deserves a chance to prove that her insurance company was wrong to deny her benefits in connection with a car accident that wasn't her fault.
• EDITORIAL: Insurers must honor their commitment   
  Description: Will your insurance company be there when you need it most? That's what you assume when you buy insurance. You pay a premium so that when something goes wrong, your insurance company will pay for your covered losses. Unfortunately, that is not happening in Washington state. Our system is broken.
• ARTICLE: Insurer wants to silence 2 ex-staffers   
  Description: Farmers Insurance has asked a state court to silence two of its former employees who say a new computer program being used throughout the industry places unfairly low values on its personal-injury claims.
• ARTICLE: Policyholders beware, insurance critics warn   
  Description: There is no way the public can know how many property claims are denied in this way. An insurance company's anti-fraud plans and activities, although reported to the state Office of the Insurance Commissioner, are proprietary and cannot be discovered through civil litigation.
• ARTICLE: Ten Things About Your Insurance That Your Insurance Company   
  Description: The average American spends thousands of dollars per year of insurance. Homeowners, automobile, medical, life, business, disability, umbrella and other coverages. Because most of us never suffer the large losses that everyone worries about, people have very little experience in dealing with insurance companies on large claims. Those that do are often in for a bit of a shock. Delay, the use of complex policy language to deny claims, and substantial underestimating of losses by carriers are common. Many people don't realize that insurance companies, like banks, earn their profits from investments, stocks, bonds, venture capital and real estate. The profitability of a company depends on how much money they have available to invest. If a company owes X million to all claimants at a given point in time, it can save 8% or more of that per year in investment profits by merely engaging in delay. It can save another 30 to 40% by engaging in lowballing. Another 20 to 30% can be saved by wrongful claim denials on confusing policy language.
• ARTICLE: Bad Faith Claim Practices Defined   
  Description: The Insurance Industry has lobbied over the years to see that there is no federal agency which oversees the insurance industry, essentially leaving no federal law or enforcement to protect Insureds against Unfair Insurance Claims Practices. Currently this authority lays at the state level only.
• ARTICLE: Good faith insurance bill passes House   
  Description: The Minnesota House Thursday okayed a measure that would make it easier for homeowners and motorists to sue their insurance companies over unpaid claims.
• TV: Did Insurance Company Cheat Disabled Clients? (60 Minutes, CBS)   
  Description: A number of people who worked at UnumProvident, the giant of the disability insurance business, whose clients include CBS, told us that the company’s management puts tremendous pressure on claims handlers to deny new claims and shut down existing ones. And that many UnumProvident policy holders- who are obviously disabled – are left out in the cold.
• NEWS: Like A Good Neighbor..."? - Dateline NBC Conducts Its Own Review Of State Farm Insurance   
  Description: Dateline investigates State Farm Insurance Company and its little-known practice of "paper review." In a paper review, State Farm employees review a patient's medical records rather than actually examining the patient. The Dateline crew discovered that some State Farm employees use this practice to manipulate the system. For example, the crew found that some employees "secretly orchestrated the supposedly independent medical results, helping author reports and dictating changes to medical opinions that led to lower recommended payments for medical claims."
• NAIC Cites Top Insurance Complaints for 2007   
  Description: According to data released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the top three reasons consumers filed formal complaints against their insurance companies in 2007 were delays, denials of claims and unsatisfactory settlement offers. Policy cancellations and premium/insurance rating issues completed the top five.
• REPORT: Worst And Best Insurers For Non-Payment of Claims   
  Description: Worst And Best Insurers For Non-Payment of Claims
• REPORT: Bad Faith and Excess Liability -- Insurer Conduct on Trial   
  Description: It is a general rule that every contract implies the exercise of good faith and fair dealing between the parties to the contract -- that neither party will do anything that impairs the right of the other to receive the benefits of the agreement.
• ARTICLE: Insurers dropping millions to stop R-67   
  Description: Like an intrusive neighbor, State Farm is there. The insurance giant has kicked in $1.608 million to the anti-67 effort. Farmers Insurance is out to get state law back to where it belongs. It's put up $1.524 million.
• ARTICLE: Insurance commissioner rejects claims on R-67   
  Description: The state's top elected industry watchdog, Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, is baring his teeth and pushing back against a heavily financed campaign to overturn new insurance regulations.
• ARTICLE: R-67 mailing 'felt like a threat'   
  Description: State Farm letter on insurance measure angers some customers
• ARTICLE: Referendum 67: Protect consumers   
  Description: Simply put, the law would provide consumers with much-needed protection against bad actors in the industry
• ARTICLE: Insurance giants not supporting Ref. 67   
  Description: The state's two largest insurance companies say they won't join their industry colleagues in financing a proposed ballot measure to repeal a new insurance law.
• ARTICLE: The crash of the insurance companies   
  Description: A flood of cash from the insurance companies was not enough to sink Referendum 67. Judges will now have the power to award triple damages to people who sue their insurance carriers and win.
• LINK: Approve 67   
  Description: Referendum 67 helps to ensure that the insurance industry honor their commitments to treat all policyholders honestly by making it against the law to unreasonably delay or deny legitimate claims.
• NEWS: Insurers keep us spinning   
  Description: Insurers are spending record amounts against Referendum 67. That's a vote Tuesday on a law passed by the Legislature that would increase penalties when legitimate claims are denied or delayed.

Frequent Questions for Insurance Coverage Disputes & Bad Faith Claims:

• What does the term insurance "bad faith" mean?
• What Are Some Examples of Bad Faith Conduct?
• If my insurance company denies my claim, do I have any rights?

Videos about Insurance Coverage Disputes & Bad Faith Claims:

• Anderson Cooper 360 -- Keeping them Honest: Insurance Battle

Web Resources for Insurance Coverage Disputes & Bad Faith Claims:

• Insurance Information Institute: Auto Insurance Facts

  Description: The average cost of automobile insurance declined by 1.3 percent in 2005, according to a September 2007 report from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). See more interesting car insurance facts.

• AllstateInsuranceSucks.com

  Description: Forbes picks AllstateInsuranceSucks.com as #1 Corporate Complaint Site.

• Fight Bad-faith Insurance Companies (FBIC)

  Description: FBIC (Fight Bad-faith Insurance Companies) is a non-profit consumer advocacy organization which specializes in uncovering today's alleged fraudulent multi-billion dollar bad-faith non-payment of claims rip-offs by the powerful Insurance Industry.

• Americans For Insurance Reform

  Description: Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR) is a national coalition of public interest organizations that support effective insurance industry reforms to control skyrocketing insurance rates, reduced insurance coverage, arbitrary policy cancellations, mismanagement and other insurance industry abuses.

• Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner

  Description: The Insurance Commissioner’s Office has the responsibility of regulating the insurance business in Washington under authority granted by the insurance laws of this state.

Davis Law Group
2101 Fourth Avenue
Suite 630
Seattle, WA 98121

Toll Free: (800) 883-0265
Phone: (206) 727-4000