Pleasant Law Blog (Insurance Claims, Medical Misakes, and Nursing Home Claims)

Buying Disability Insurance Article May Help Avoid Problems With Unfair Disability Insurance Claim Denials

Wrongful denial of disability insurance benefits, including long term disability benefits from companies like UNUM Insurance, Provident Insurance, CIGNA Insurance, The Hartford Insurance, John Hancock Insurance and others: this article could help you avoid unfair insurance claims practices by insurance companies.

Independent Insurance Adjusters - Help With Insurance Claim Problems

Problems with insurance claims with insurance companies like Nationwide, Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, GEICO, and others, sometimes require an insurance lawyer.

Insurance Claim Payment Delays: Are They Unfair?

By Thomas Waitt Pleasant, North Carolina Insurance Lawyer, Toll Free 888.435.7156. Whether an insurance company's delay in payment on an insurance claim (whether for homeowner/fire insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, or other insurance), may or may not be in bad faith. It depends upon the circumstances and reasons for the delay. An article from Risk & Insurance Online discusses this topic. I recently handled a case involving a six-month delay in the denial of a homeowner's insurance payment, after his home burned in a fire. The insurance company in that case did not even take a position in writing before jumping out and suing my client in federal court. It took several months of litigation maneuvering to get the court to allow my client to assert insurance bad faith and unfair claims practices claims; but once this was accomplished, the insurance company ended up paying a substantial settlement to my client. In that case, there was (in my opinion) no excuse for denying the insurance coverage at all, much less delaying the denial decision for approximately six months. There are more details to the story of this case, of course, but the bottom line is that insurance companies must have a legitimate, solid reason for delaying the payment of an insurance claim on an insurance policy; lest it will risk liability for insurance bad faith and/or unfair insurance claims practices. All insurance companies are subject to the laws protecting consumers from bad insurance claims handling practices. Just because your insurance company is a big insurance company, you should not necessarily be sure that bad faith delays won't happen to you. Whether your company is State Farm, Nationwide, Liberty Mutual, Unum, USAA, GEICO, Allstate, Prudential, or any other large insurance company, the same obligations are owed to you as a policyholder.  If you are having trouble with your insurance company paying what it owes you, contact my office for a free case consultation/evaluation. Toll Free 888.435.7156.

Would Your Insurance Company Sue You? It Can and Does Happen.

By Thomas Waitt Pleasant, North Carolina Unfair Insurance Colaims Practices Attorney. Toll Free 888.435.7156. Attorneys are seeing an increase in the insurance claim tactic by insurance companies whereby they simply sue their own insured/policyholder, rather than just deny the claim. This is a particularly abusive and unfair tactic in my mind. This is not necessarily a new insurance company tactic, but it seems to be on the increase by a number of big-name insurance companies. Technically, the insurance company may have the legal right to do this under most states' declaratory judgment laws, but the technical right to handle an insurance claim this way does not necessarily make the tactic fair or in good faith. In my opinion, this conduct is without question in bad faith. A typical scenario might be that, after you submit your insurance claim (whether for fire damage to your house, for medical insurance, cancer insurance, etc.), the insurance company decides it thinks there is no coverage. Rather than simply deny the claim in writing with the reasons for the denial, as they relate to the insurance policy provisions (as many states' unfair claims practices laws requires), you get served with a lawsuit. If your insurance company sues you, you should get an insurance attorney immediately. Once you are sued, deadlines will apply to your lawyer's filing of a proper response to the lawsuit, and how this is done can have a dramatic effect on the outcome of your case. If the insurance company did not actually handle your claim properly (for example, by failing or refusing to thouroughly and objectively evaluate your insurance claim), your lawyer should file counterclaims (a countersuit) for unfair claims practices, bad faith, and, probably, several other types of claims. I generally provide free consultations to people who have been sued by their own insurance company. Contact my office Toll Free at 888.435.7156.

Insurance Claim Tactics Exposed Again by AAJ - Read "Tricks of the trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse"

By North Carolina insurance attorney Thomas W. Pleasant. This report can be read online by clicking the link in the title. This report is a follow up on the report done previously by the American Association for Justice (AAJ), "The Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America." The report details why so many people are hurt by their insurance companies, and why they often eventually have to hire insurance lawyers to help them get paid on their insurance claims. Legitimate claims are, in fact, often subjected to this delay, denial tactic. If you have an insurance issue, whether a disability insurance issue, a homeowner insurance issue, a fire insurance issue, or any other kind of insurance claim problem, you can contact my office for a free consultation and/or case review. In many of these insurance cases, there is a chance that your insurance company has denied your insurance claim in bad faith, and may have committed unfair insurance claims practices. For more information, you can check out  the practice areas at the homepage of my website, www.pleasantlaw.com. My office can be reached Toll Free at 888-435-7156, and we are available to help with these cases in most places in North Carolina, including Raleigh, Wilmington and Fayetteville. We can come to meet you if you are in need of help with an insurance claim or dispute.