Forms of Bad Faith Insurance Tactics
There is a difference between bad customer service and bad faith insurance. One of them is frustrating, and the other is unlawful and punishable with a lawsuit. But how can you know the difference and if your situation calls for a bad faith insurance claim? That’s easy – leave it up to our Gulfport bad faith insurance attorneys to decide using our extensive legal and practice experience.
A few common forms of bad faith insurance tactics are:
- Wrongful denial: Insurance companies have valid reasons to use when denying a claim, and invalid reasons. When an invalid reason is used – or no reason is given at all – it is one of the most common forms of bad faith insurance.
- Unreasonable delays: Managing an insurance claim can take some time, but the insurer should try to avoid any delays if possible. Intentionally delaying a claim is a favorite bad faith tactic of insurance companies that want to frustrate the claimant to the point that they give up.
- Refusal to communicate: Are you having no luck at all getting the insurer to answer your calls or emails? If they won’t talk with you at all, then you might be able to sue them.
- Undervalued damages: To save money, some insurers will intentionally undervalue the damages in a claim and offer a lowballed lump-sum settlement amount that doesn’t cover everything.
- Mid-term policy changes: Once you buy a policy and sign it, physically or digitally, it cannot be changed until the policy is up for renewal. An insurer who changes a policy mid-term has committed bad faith and should be penalized.
- Harassment: As shocking as it might seem, some bad faith insurers rely on harassment, intimidation, and outright threats to try to deter people from filing claims. This is clearly illegal.
