Elements of a Bad Faith Claim from a Denver Bad Faith Lawyer

When you take out an insurance policy, you do so for protection and for safety. Insurance is supposed to safeguard you and your family from potential threats or hazards and prevent you from suffering financially in the event of an accident or disaster. Unfortunately, not all insurance companies act in their policyholders’ best interest. When this occurs, it’s called bad faith, and many people consider filing a bad faith claim with the help of a bad faith lawyer in Denver to recoup costs and damages incurred.

Common Bad Faith Practices

A bad faith claim can be a viable option for policyholders if they believe they have been a victim of fraud, deception or neglect, or if the insurance company has refused to fulfill its contractual duties. According to Denver bad faith lawyer D.J. Banovitz, the following could be considered bad faith practices, and therefore could be grounds for a bad faith claim:

• unreasonable delay in paying benefits;
• wrongful denial of a claim;
• sudden or unreasonable cancellation of policy;
• refusal or failure to conduct a reasonable investigation;
• failure to keep the policyholder information of claim developments; and
• unreasonable demand for the policy to contribute to a settlement.

To win a bad faith claim, you must prove the insurance company failed to act the way a reasonable insurance company would in a similar situation, or show that the non-payment, delay, refusal or denial of a claim was unreasonable and done without due cause.

Oftentimes, when a bad faith claim is filed against an insurance company, they will file their own bad faith claim against the policyholder as a defense. This claims that the policyholder did not fulfill the duty to cooperate with the insurance company; this may have been by not allowing an insurance adjuster or contractor into their home, withholding information that was vital to the claim, or falsifying any claim documents. That’s why it’s important to cooperate with your insurance company and give them the chance to correct their mistakes. If you don’t, they could have a successful bad faith claim against you as well.

Contact a Bad Faith Lawyer in Denver

If you believe you have been a victim of bad faith, consider filing a bad faith claim against your insurance company to recoup damages and costs you’ve incurred. Call 1-303-300-5060 to speak to a Denver bad faith lawyer at the Law Office of D.J. Banovitz today.

To learn more about bad faith and personal injury, read our eBook 7 Costly Mistakes that Can Ruin Your Colorado Injury Case