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: Mon May 03, 2010 06:53 pm Post Subject:

Lead to believe and told you have to... are two different things

Das...good catch.. :wink:
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Can i sue a persons ins that hit my car in the back if my insurance was lapse.

depends on what for and the state..some states will not allow uninsured folks, such as your self, to benefit from a claim if they were uninsured, they bar, 'non-economic' losses...but you would still be entitled to 'actual' or 'economic' losses.

But why sue? file a claim with their carrier...geeeeeeeeeeeze, everyone wants to sue someone :roll:

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 03:50 pm Post Subject: bad faith law suit

I am suing an insur com for bad faith and breach of contract and for outrageous behavior outside the workers comp bargain, ie, fradulent concealment of an injury, deciet mis representing an insuran. policy, and violation of sub rosa rights and privacy when the inur comp. sent an investigator on to injured worker's residnece, scaring the hell out of a nine year old attempting to video tape a again when the photographer peeked into a wondow. what's my best action(s)??

Posted: Fri May 07, 2010 07:50 pm Post Subject:

what's my best action(s)??

Have you field suit or not? I'm guessing not? In either case, you need to obtain the services and attorney.

Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 03:28 pm Post Subject: time limit to take care to body shop

is there a written law on how many days you have to take your car to a body shop after an accident. my insurance company USAA demanded i take it by a certain day. the one that i took it to has done a poor job (bad paint and parts glued on). can i sue USAA for something??

Posted: Wed May 12, 2010 04:19 pm Post Subject:

is there a written law on how many days you have to take your car to a body shop after an accident.

You don't ever have to have the vehicle repaired. So, no.

the one that i took it to has done a poor job (bad paint and parts glued on). can i sue USAA for

You don't mention is this was a 1st or 3rd party claim but that probably won't matter.

You can sue anyone for anything as long as you can have them served. Are you asking if you might win? What did USAA do wrong?

Did you take it to this shop under the recommendation of USAA? That is, was this a preferred shop that they recommended you take it to and you agreed?

If you did not use their preferred shop then they paid for the damage as they were supposed to... they have no responsibility to make the shop repair the vehicle correctly. In that case your complaint would be against the shop for the incorrect repairs.

If you took it into a preferred shop then USAA does need to address this issue. They will start by having that initial shop correct the problem.

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 02:14 pm Post Subject: HEALTH INSURANCE

I had a kidney stone blasted in Aug 2008 empire blue sent my wife and my two letters stating the fact the company that blasted the stone was paid in full. Which they were not. After 2 yrs they finally paid the $14,750 bill, but in the 2 yrs of fighting with them constantly and the hundreds of harnessing phone calls from the company that blasted the stone and put a $14,750 judgment against me which totally destroyed my good credit rating, so I cant borrow any money from my bank and has put me in a terrible financial bind, I was even thrown out of my bank by the police and told never to return because when I went to borrow some money that judgment came up and i argued with the bank manger where I have been banking for years and told her and showed her the letters from empire blue that they were paid in full. She said that those letters mean nothing its on your credit history. Now I want to sue my health ins company and told them so and they wont return any of my threating calls to them. They are begging to get sued but don't know what kind of lawyer in need. Please help me if u can any advise will help thank you. Joe

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 02:36 pm Post Subject:

Stop YELLING!

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 04:10 pm Post Subject:

was not yelling always type in caps bad habit i guess

Posted: Wed May 19, 2010 09:15 pm Post Subject:

Ticked, first off

THEY WONT RETURN ANY OF MY THREATING CALLS TO THEM.


I wouldn't return a "threatening" phone call either, I'd have you arrested.. :wink: Becareful they take this stuff WAY too serious some times, and you can get charged with terriorist threats...not funny at all..

You don't need to sue anyone, all you need to do is get a copy of your credit report from the two or three big bureaus...Then call them, tell them the story ask them exactly what documentation you need to get these removed from your report. It's not an easy job, but it can be done..

was not yelling always type in caps bad habit i guess

yeah, my sister does this too drives me nuts.. :wink: ALL CAPS is 'code' for yelling, and does make it harder to read...It's ok, but probably good Tcope let you know, you might be misunderstood doing that some time :)

Posted: Thu May 20, 2010 01:02 am Post Subject: Insurance company claims a damage is pre existing

I am a victim of a Hit and Run accident (4/20/2010 - LA, CA) and I reported the accident to police then and there itself. Mercury is my insurance company and a filed a claim. The adjuster said that after they get the police report, they will refund the deductible, so I can take my insurance and they suggested a body shop "Golden Auto Body" in LA. I gave my car for repairs on 4/28 and last week checked the status and obtained the repair estimate for sending to police.
When I called the car for the pickup on last saturday, they told me that there is a sound from the left side and they need to check it. On Monday they left me a voice message saying that I had suspension and axle issue and dont think that it was part of accident.
I called the adjuster and he put me in conference call with the re-inspector and I told them that I got my car checked by Toyota dealer and pepboys Auto recently and they never told me this issue. They asked me to fax the invoice
After receiving the invoice the re-inspector called me and told that they believe its pre-existing since I had bad tires. I told that my car is a used car and he tires are replaced by the old owner (since all the 4 tires are not same brand) before selling it to me. I asked whether toyota or Pepboys have told them if this is pre-existing issue. They said "No, but you had bad tires".
I suspect that the issue has happened because either the accident or the Body shop did something to replace my good parts.
Can I sue the Mercury Company along with the body shop and what should I do for that?

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