Sometimes an insurance company refuses to grant coverage of damages, after an accident victim has filed a claim.
The applicable rules to follow differ with the different jurisdictions.
The relevant jurisdiction should be the one in which the claimant resides. Different states have different approaches, when dealing with bad faith claims. Not every jurisdiction ensures the availability to claimants of payment for damages.
There are 2 different compensatory damages:
• Compensation for claims
• Compensation for injuries caused by the reported action(s)
• Other damages for which a claimant could seek reimbursement
• Punitive damages: Those might be awarded a claimant as a means for punishing the defendant.
• Attorney’s fees: Recovery for costs related to lawyer’s services are not available in all states.
Every state does have a department that controls the state’s insurance industry.
Someone that has had an insurance claim denied has the right to send a letter to that particular department. The letter should explain the nature of the submitted claim and the nature of the action that was taken by the insurance company.
What charges might be made against an insurance company that has denied promised coverage?
That company could be charged with bad faith. It has broken the contract that it made with a given policyholder. It has failed to indemnify the same policyholder, as promised.
The state might also indicate that the party that has been denied coverage would have the right to make a tort claim. If an insurance agency’s denial of coverage has caused the affected claimant to suffer an economic injury, then that same claimant would have the right to make a tort claim against the agency that had chosen to deny the claimant’s access to deserved compensation.
How does the nature of the charge brought against a given insurer affect the sorts of damages that could be available to the party behind those same charges?
Someone that has sued an insurance company for “bad faith,” and has won that same lawsuit could expect to receive compensatory damages. In some states, the same party might also be compensated for any attorney’s fees.
Someone that has presented and won a tort claim could also receive punitive damages. Those would be added to the compensatory damages as per personal injury lawyer in Edmonton. The demand for payment of punitive damages would represent an effort by the court to punish the insurer that had allowed a given insurance agency to deny the request for fair compensation.
A decision about reimbursement of the party that had not been compensated fairly would reflect the laws in that same party’s state. As indicated above, not all states reimburse those plaintiffs that have been forced to pay an attorney’s fee, when fighting a denied claim.