How to sue an insurance company?

by ty_ger88 » Fri Sep 14, 2007 02:20 pm

Many a times you may be unhappy with your insurance company for not paying you your dues or for delaying your payments or for any other reason. Your insurance company does not always have the upper hand. There are laws to protect you if you have a dishonest insurer.

When can you sue your insurance company?

You can sue your insurance company on grounds of:
  • Bad faith and
  • Breach of contract

If your insurer tries to trick you by not paying up a legitimate claim you can put up a civil suit against the company for having acted in bad faith. A company shows bad faith when it unreasonably denies a legitimate claim. This may mean that:
  • The company has failed to carry out proper investigations
  • Undue delay in processing a claim
  • Disregarding the rights of the policyholder
  • Inadequate compensation provided against claim filed

You can sue your insurance company for the full amount of benefits that has been denied to you as well as for any economic loss or emotional distress that you may have had to suffer as a result of the refusal. If your insurance company has been dishonest you may also get punitive damages. This is a means to make the insurance company behave more responsibly in future correspondences.

It is good to keep all paper works organized so that you can find them as soon as you need them. You may think of an old receipt as unimportant but it might hold great importance when you have a case standing against your insurer for bad faith or breach of contract.

Related Readings

I'm confused, please help. Here's my story and question. I'll try to make it short. My car was hit about a month ago. I was not in the car. It was parked on the side street. The driver of the truck that hit me left a note with all of his information. Now, it has been almost a month, and his insurance is not doing much. At first, they promised to have the damage estimated, but then nothing was sent to the car shop where my car located. I ended up going through my own insurance company. The problem is before I went with my insurance company, I had rented a car and had discussed this with the other insurance company. They said they would reimburse me all the fees. Now, they're not answering my calls. They keep on telling me that the agent is busy and will get back to me. It has been 4 days since I faxed in my car rental bill. What can I do? Can I sue them? Would you tell me how to sue an insurance company? The bill was paid for by my credit card, and I don't want to owe interests on it. Please help. Thanks.

Total Comments: 380

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2008 11:47 pm Post Subject: when to sue insurance company

There was no were for him to go other then a ditch Thank GOD that the people that hit him had stopped and protected him from other cars coming up behind him. And now my son is doing so much better . Unfortunately, thier insurance has been avioding the hospital, not giving them the policy no# and saying that there's no policy for them My son's been in the hospital for 10 days now.The insurance company is making it so I'm not believing those people anymore . I keep praying that their just making a mistake.

Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 09:47 am Post Subject:

Oh my gosh concerned!! I'm so sorry! I hope your boy is back to 100% and soon...if there is no auto policy for the people that own or were driving the car, they should have sent you a letter stating this is so....See if you have medpay on your policy, medpay in many states will cover any injury associated with an impact of a vehicle (my state does)...in the mean while call the adjuster and ask them if the policy was good and enforce, if not you want a detailed letter advising the same...

Please don't hesitate to ask any questions you have, we'd be glad to do our best to assist you.

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 06:56 pm Post Subject: workmans comp.

Running cable for a large business in our town for many years, they decided that we needed workmans comp. ins. to continue working for them. We told our agent that we needed it and he faxed a copy of it to the employers. Our bill was showing fire application not workmans comp. We asked our agent about this several times and he assured us that we had workmans comp. ins. We then received a refund check in the amount we had been paying for the fire application. We are no longer being billed for the fire application nor any workmans comp., which our agent assured us that we have. The company that was hiring us is no longer using us, we assume because we really don't have workmans comp. ins. as our agent told us. Approx. 1 quarter of our income comes from this business and has for 10 or more years. Can you tell me how to sue an insurance company for lost wages.

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 05:56 am Post Subject:

Why don't you speak to the insurance company directly? I think you need to sue the insurance agent since he's giving contradictory statement. Hope he has the E&O insurance to cover his back.

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2009 07:01 am Post Subject:

We asked our agent about this several times and he assured us that we had workmans comp. ins. We then received a refund check in the amount we had been paying for the fire application.



Does that mean that the insurance company has decided not to insure you any longer? Who, I think you can still add more to the story. We need to know the details.

Our bill was showing fire application not workmans comp. We asked our agent about this several times and he assured us that we had workmans comp.



Does the agent have a proper explanation for this mix-up?

~Jeremy

Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 10:27 pm Post Subject: sue for accident

Hi. I had accident and my insurance is one-way,it was my fault ,and my car is totally damaged, I`ve got back pain.some body told me if I get a lawyer they will charge me 25% and they can pay me almost 13000$, I called to my insurance company,they told me if my lawyer sue the insurance co.. they will quiet my insurance for 10 years and also they lawyer will sue insurance company for 200,000$ or more and will pay me only 10000 to 15000$, is that right?! stat farm co

Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 07:08 am Post Subject:

Hamid, if you don't have the right kinda coverage then you can hardly expect the right kinda benefits.

Please clarify if by this "one-way" policy you're actually pointing towards an auto liability policy!
You've mentioned about your back pain, but do you have PIP coverage?

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 02:59 pm Post Subject: Seminole Casualty Insurance Company

Seminole Casualty Ins. Company has had a lot of claims against them in the state of Florida, check the internet postings and findings. This company is a fraudulent insurance company and reputable insurance agents are no longer working with them in Florida. They deny claims, are extremely slow to respond to people, hang-up on claimants, and will not follow up. One main concern from a number of insured policy holders is that their policy is downgraded without their knowledge, until they need to file an insurance claim. Most insured policy holders have had collision removed from their policies, but they are still paying the premiums for the coverage.

Please stay away from Seminole Casualty Insurance Company for your own protection.

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 11:25 pm Post Subject: Need to know facts

Ourtruck was T-boed 3 weeks ago and we decided t go through our insurace comany since they told us it would go faster. It is no i the shop being repaired so we have a rental car, we ae both out of job now due to the economy and ca ot afford to keep paying n the car.Our insurance says tey will only pay wats inour contract but they oterguys insurance say it is to much hassle for them to pick the rest at this time. I can't get anyone to return my calls and I'am at my witts end. The rental is collectig ate fee's in our name and we don't now what to do from here. If we can sue who do we sue and how do we go about all this mess..
Please help needed !!!!!

Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2009 09:32 am Post Subject:

It would have been better if you could explain that part of the contract which specifies about the payment. Is it not possible for you to visit the carrier's office personally?

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