Euless Bad Faith Insurance Lawyers 

Making Insurance Companies Pay 

When you sign up for an insurance policy, you expect a certain minimum responsibility from the company. You expect that since you are paying them a monthly fee, they will honor the agreement you signed and provide you with funds should you have to make a claim.

As the client of the company, you make your payments in good faith; the good faith that the company will uphold their half of the deal. But unfortunately, this ignores the simple fact that insurance companies are first-and-foremost interested in their own financial well-being, and the best way for them to improve this area is to avoid shelling money out to clients.

Instead of helping you, it’s common to find out that your insurance company has used devious tactics and legal loopholes to delay or try to avoid paying your claims. When this happens, you need the help of an experienced attorney like you’ll find at The Wolf of Law Street.

What is Bad Faith Insurance?

Bad faith insurance is the term we use when we talk about insurance companies engaging in some rather sleazy behaviors. But unfortunately, it is also one of the more common experiences to have with an insurance company. Too many people have dealt with bad faith insurance and just accepted it rather than fighting against it, as we recommend.

When you sign up for an insurance policy, you are literally signing a contract. As a legal contract, both parties are required to live up to their obligations as outlined in the document. Bad faith insurance occurs when an insurance company tries to weasel its way out of paying you, either by denying the claim, delaying the paying of your claim, or purposefully underpaying.

It’s important to note that for a situation to be a case of bad faith insurance, the negative behavior has to be the fault of the insurance company. For example, say you had a claim denied or underpaid, and you suspect bad faith insurance. But upon investigation, you discover that you miscalculated your claim. The error is what caused the negative result, and so this is not a case of bad faith insurance because the insurance company worked in good faith with the information they were given.

While this example was not the insurance company’s fault, the fact that the insurance company was the first suspect is a decent response. As we’ll see, bad faith insurance is far, far too common.

Why is Bad Faith Insurance so Common?

Bad faith insurance is so common due entirely to the fact that an insurance company is a business. The goal of every business is to make money. They might then use a portion of that money to invest in a goal or dream that they believe in, but this is a secondary concern to the actual accumulation of dollars.

When you’re selling shoes, this is pretty straightforward. You spend money to purchase inventory; then you sell that inventory at a higher price to your customers. But insurance doesn’t work this way. The insurance model is actually fairly antithetical to your typical business model.

Insurance companies receive money from their clients typically once a month. The individual who is forking over their money is typically getting nothing in return. This is because many people never need to make an insurance claim. So when things are flowing like this, the company is doing really well.

But that payment is made so that the client is covered in the case of an emergency. When they get into an accident, they expect the insurance company will provide for them. After all, what were those payments for?

Yet, for the insurance company, paying their clients means they are losing money. They only actually make a dollar when nothing has gone wrong. So if they want to continue to make money, they need to avoid paying insurance claims for as long as possible.

This is a problem because it means the system itself encourages insurance companies to act against their client’s best interests.

What Tactics Do Insurance Companies Use to Underpay Clients?

Insurance companies have a number of tactics available to them in order to underpay their clients. The bad faith insurance playbook is quite vast, and these are but a small portion of the tricks they may use in order to reduce how much they have to give their clients.

• Recorded Statements: A common tactic is to try to get you to agree to make a recorded statement, during which the insurance company’s goal would be to try to make you admit to seemingly unimportant details that could actually help them to deny your claim. Do not consent to a recorded statement.
• Pushing a Quick Close: Insurance companies understand that accidents are stressful. That’s one of the reasons they’ll try to push a quick settlement for a low amount on you. They hope that you’re so stressed out dealing with everything that you’ll just want to say yes and accept a bad settlement simply to get it over with quickly.
• Signed Medical Release: Insurance companies trick people into signing a medical release. This would give them access to all your medical records, not just those relating to the accident. They might try to convince you it is routine, but the reason they can say so is that they routinely use this to get access to records they can use to argue down the impact of the accident.
• Confusion: Insurance companies will regularly use lots of lingo and legal jargon with the express purpose of confusing their clients. A confused client is more likely to go along with what the company says and accept their words simply because they can’t follow them properly. If they don’t speak in layman’s terms, don’t accept anything they’re offering until you’ve had more time to consider it.

Do I Need a Bad Faith Insurance Lawyer?

If you are dealing with an insurance company that is treating you wrong, then you should reach out to an attorney. However, the best time to reach out to an attorney is before contacting your insurance company, so they have zero chance of trying to trick you.

When your insurance company treats you wrong, you can count on The Wolf of Law Street to help you make things right. Contact The Wolf of Law Street at (972) 573-4532 to speak to one of our experienced attorneys.