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Insurance Law

Arizona Insurance Law Attorneys

Insurance Fair Dealing | Insurance Bad Faith

An insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company. Both you and the insurance company have obligations under the contract, whether it is a homeowner's policy, medical insurance, uninsured/ underinsured motorist insurance, or any other policy. In addition to what is written on the policy, the insurance company has a duty to treat you fairly.

Fair treatment, also known as fair dealing, generally means treating someone as you would want to be treated. For an insurance company, it means to put your interests as the insured party on the same level as the insurance company's interests. Whenever an insurance company fails to treat you fairly, it is guilty of insurance bad faith.

A number of actions by an insurance company can be considered bad faith actions:

• Failure to conduct a timely investigation of your claim
• Failure to pay undisputed funds on a timely basis
• Denying benefits owed under the policy without a reasonable basis
• "Lowballing" its evaluation of the amount of damages you have sustained
• Forcing you to jump through needless, adversarial hoops in order to obtain benefits owed under the policy
• Failure to provide for a defense if you are sued

Bad faith cases can arise only in disputes between you and your insurance company. If you have a dispute with another person's insurance company, such as the auto insurance company of a driver who ran into your car, a bad faith claim would not arise since you don't have a contract with the other person's insurance company.

Damages In Insurance Bad Faith Cases Under Arizona Law

Whenever an insurance company treats you unfairly, it becomes liable for additional damages beyond the amount of your claim. There are two types of additional damages:

• When an insurance company breaches a contract, the court can order it to pay your attorney fees. In effect, this allows you to collect the entire amount of your insurance claim, since the insurance company will have to pay your attorney.
• When an insurance company is guilty of bad faith, a court can also order damages for aggravation, emotional distress, and anxiety. Depending on the insurance company's actions, these damages can far exceed the amount of your claim.

Insurance bad faith laws level the playing ground between individual policyholders and giant insurance companies. If insurance companies do not treat their policyholders fairly, they may be forced to pay large damage awards.

If you find yourself in an insurance dispute, the lawyers at The Voightmann Law Firm can help. We are dedicated to representing individuals and businesses in insurance coverage disputes and bad faith claims, and will vigorously pursue all insurance benefits that you or your business is entitled to receive. While we can't guarantee that a judge will award attorney fees or any damages beyond your actual damages, we can guarantee that we will pursue them.