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

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.