When you have fulfilled your contractual obligations by paying premiums to your auto insurance company over many years, you have every reason to expect that when disaster strikes your insurance company will stand behind you and fulfill their obligations to provide the protection that you paid faithfully to receive. While this may be a reasonable expectation, many insurance policyholders who have never made a single claim against their policy find that their insurance company refuses to cover their property losses pursuant to their uninsured motorist and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage or to defend against liability claims when they are involved in a collision.
The Unethical Practices of Some California Insurance Carriers
Our San Francisco car accident attorneys at Zimmerman Law are thoroughly familiar with the practices that insurance companies employ to increase profits while failing to abide by their contractual obligations to their insured. Many of our clients come to us after they have diligently pursued a claim with their insurance company only to be met with denial letters, ludicrously undervalued settlement offers or tactics of delay. Insurance companies have a responsibility to respond to requests regarding the status of your claim and provide reasonable answers to your questions. An insurance company may violate these obligations because the insurance carrier knows that many times policyholders simply become fed up and give up or accept a lowball settlement. Our Bay Area auto accident lawyers are familiar with the dishonest and unethical practices employed by many insurance carriers and are prepared to fight for the insurance benefits for which you have paid.
When an insurance company fails to deal with you in good faith, you many not only have the right to seek contract damages for your loss but may also have a right to seek punitive damages for the insurance carrier’s refusal to deal with you in good faith. Whether your insurance company is denying your UM/UIM claim without a legitimate basis or unfairly undervaluing your claim, our experienced and dedicated San Francisco car accident lawyers are prepared to work diligently to force your insurance company to provide the protection you paid for under you UM/UIM insurance.
Obligations of Insurance Companies toward Policyholders
Every insurance contract in California contains an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. This means that your insurance carrier acts as a fiduciary and is expected to give at least as much consideration to your interest as the insurance company’s own interest. Because of this implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, your insurance carrier is expected to look for a basis in your policy to cover your claim as opposed to combing through your policy to find a justification for not covering your claim.
Our dedicated uninsured motorist/underinsured motorist insurance attorneys provide tenacious legal representation for all types of conduct constituting violations of an insurance carrier’s obligation of good faith and fair dealing including:
- Unjustified or unexplained denials of claims
- Failure of the insurance carrier to properly calculate deductibles
- Claims related to the scope of coverage and policy exclusions
- Lowballing claims
- Tactics of unreasonable and unjustified delay in paying claims or responding to inquiries
Although insurance companies are contractually obligated to provide financial security from loss, insurance carriers do not increase profits by maximizing what they pay in claims. When your insurance carrier denies your claim, you should request that your carrier indicate in writing exactly why your claim is being denied and ask your insurance company to indicate the precise language or section of your policy that it is relying on to deny or undervalue your claim. By requesting your insurance company to provide this information, you force the insurance carrier to defend a specific rationale for its position if we later pursue a lawsuit for insurance bad faith. It is also advisable to document all communications with your insurance company.
When your insurance company fails to honor its obligation to pay your claim, defend you from a liability claim or attempts to force you to settle for far less than the value of your claim, our San Francisco car accident law firm may be able to help you obtain the coverage and benefits to which you are legally entitled including filing a lawsuit for bad faith seeking punitive damages.
Contact Us For Your Free Consultation
If you or someone you love is injured in a collision with an uninsured driver and your insurance company is not cooperating in paying uninsured motorist benefits, we invite you to contact us as soon as possible because critical deadlines apply. The Law Office of Ian Zimmerman offers a free initial consultation so that we can assess your case. We are open 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., speak Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and are available for weekend, evening, home and hospital meetings and visits. We also offer free initial consultations and work exclusively on a contingency fee basis so that you pay nothing if we don’t win your case.