People purchase insurance to give them peace of mind that they will be financially covered when tragedy occurs. Unfortunately, insurance companies do not always have their client’s best interests at heart and might unfairly deny their claims.
However, an experienced Georgia attorney for insurance claim denials can help you fight your denial. Policyholders who have been dealt with in bad faith or have been victims of their insurance company’s unfair business practices can file a lawsuit to recover compensation. However, there are other methods to fighting a claim denial that are less dramatic than a lawsuit that our firm can help with.
If your claim has been denied by your insurance company, our Georgia personal injury attorneys can help you determine the best path forward for your case. For a free case evaluation, contact Howe Law today at (844) 876-4357.
Can I File a Lawsuit in Georgia Against My Insurance Company for Denying My Claim?
Insurance is intended to help cover a victim’s losses in the event tragedy strikes. However, that is not always the case. While insurance companies enjoy receiving monthly payments for coverage, they can be reluctant to pay out a claim even when the facts are clear. Fortunately, Georgia law allows individuals to sue insurance companies for unfairly denying their policyholder’s claim. However, there are methods of challenging a claim denial other than a lawsuit that our Jackson personal injury attorneys for insurance claim denials can help you pursue.
Appealing a Claim Denial
Appealing your claim denial through your insurance provider could be the fastest way to reverse the decision and collect your compensation. When a claim is denied, an insurance company must give the reasons for the denial. Unfortunately, the appeals process is internal, meaning you will need to rely on the insurance company to review themselves. The process can be relatively painless if the error is a simple mistake or a certain piece of evidence needs to be submitted. However, insurance companies will have an obvious bias for their foregone conclusions and will look for any reasonable grounds to affirm the denial of your claim.
Filing a Complaint with the Georgia Insurance Commission
If you have no success with your insurance company’s appeals process, you can bring your case to the Georgia Insurance Commission. To challenge a claim denial through the Georgia Insurance Commission, a complaint must be filed detailing information about the initial claim and include copies of all relevant correspondence between the parties. If you believe that your claim denial was mistakenly upheld by the Commission, though, a lawsuit against your insurance company will be the best option to hold your provider accountable.
Filing a Lawsuit
A lawsuit has the power to make an insurance company consider its actions since they know that dealing with an experienced Georgia personal injury lawyer is not the same as negotiating with a policyholder. Once a lawsuit is filed, you have a right to collect evidence from your insurance company that could help show how your claim was unfairly denied. Knowing this, insurance companies are much more willing to settle a case than risk your attorney taking the case to trial. Our Atlanta personal injury lawyers can help you recover the compensation you deserve if your claim was negligently or willfully denied.
When Can I Sue My Insurance Company for Denying My Georgia Claim?
In Georgia, individuals that have had their claims denied can sue their insurance company if they denied their claim in bad faith or in breach of contract. While the same conduct can be used to show bad faith and breach of contract, they are distinct claims. This means that even if you cannot prove that your insurance company acted in bad faith, you might still be able to prove that their unfair business practices caused a breach of contract.
Unfair Business Practices
Insurance companies engage in numerous business practices that are recognized by Georgia law as unfair. The practice might be blatantly unfair or relatively minor but made repeatedly. The following are common scenarios that can indicate your insurance company is using unfair business practices:
- Failure to provide forms and instructions for completing them
- Failure to provide timelines
- Lacks or fails to use procedures to investigate and settle claims quickly
- Denying claims without conducting a reasonable investigation
- Failure to resolve claims quickly when liability is clear
- Offering a settlement that is substantially less than the claim’s value
- Failure to affirm or deny coverage within a reasonable time
- Failure to provide a reasonable explanation for the grounds of a claim denial
The unfair business practices mentioned here are hardly rare among insurance companies. Insurance companies are motivated by profits, not necessarily their clients’ needs. In many cases, the unfair business practices that caused an insurance company to breach its contract can also be used as evidence of bad faith.
Bad Faith
In Georgia, insurance companies must act in good faith with policyholders and claimants. Unfortunately, a claim denial by itself is not enough to prove bad faith. To prove that your insurance company denied your claim in bad faith, you must show that your policy covered your claim and that you made a demand for the claim at least 60 days before filing your lawsuit. Lastly, you must prove that your claim denial was because the insurance company acted in bad faith. This can be shown if your provider engaged in any of the conduct described previously.
Bad faith lawsuits can be extremely complex but are worth the effort to keep an insurance company from denying the compensation you are entitled to. Our Georgia attorneys for insurance claim denials can review your case to help determine how your claim was denied in bad faith.
Our Georgia Attorneys for Insurance Claim Denials Can Help
If your insurance company unfairly denied your claim, our Alpharetta personal injury lawyers can help you recover the compensation you are entitled to. Call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357 for a free case review.
Related Articles
