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.

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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: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:07 pm Post Subject: we are located in GA, our business insurance .

Montgomery insurance has not acted accepting on denying a insurance claim, it has been over a year since the loss, another claim the turned down without an investigation, loss in excess of one million dollards.

Please Advise aeschlueter@pipe-organ.com

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 03:19 am Post Subject:

Can you be a little more forthcoming with details? There is nothing to respond to in your post -- you have not given any specifics or asked a question.

Posted: Thu Dec 02, 2010 11:03 pm Post Subject: I want to sue my car insurance company

I cancelled my car insurance on the 15th of October, on the 2nd of November they debited the money from my bank accounnt. when i ask them they came with unclear explanation, mean while i was fighting with them, they went to my bank account again on the 15 November

Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 05:44 am Post Subject:

Exactly HOW did you cancel? By simply not paying when due? Or by writing a letter to the insurance company stating, "Please cancel my policy #xxxxxxx, effective October 20, 2010." (You generally have to give them a minimum of FIVE DAYS' notice -- it's in your contract.)

when i ask them they came with unclear explanation



Mind telling us what they said that you believe is unclear? We can't help you without better information.

You can always CLOSE YOUR BANK ACCOUNT and open another one. That will prevent them from taking any more money from your account.

Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 01:01 pm Post Subject: Denied liability by Insurance?

Hello !!!

I'm really in need to true guidance from some one who is expert in this area.
Its a old story but still going on fight with company back & forth.
Incident occur back in June 28th 09 a car hit me from the back. Around 7:44pm on same day.
Before that i just added the converge around 6:44pm. PST. I called my car insurance company. I request them to add full converge. I got into accident they took me to the medical & did the entire check up & i was discharge by end of the day. I came home was not able to move my body. I called my insurance company to file the claim. They just denied to cover me. Then i have to flight to my opposite insurance to pay the bills. They also refused it... I had a long fight with back & fourth with both the company. Then I was not able to do any kind of work. So I have been jobless since last Sep 2009 till now. My credit score went down due to the medical bills. It went to collections. After that i left the country for few months. Came back this year. I have been fighting back again. Now the other insurance company is willing to pay the bills. When i had to fight for entire 1 year. But All other charges & i lost my time & other things. They are saying u never had liability insurance on it. So we wont be giving you anything else. So i again started my fight with my insurance company. They are just on my face saying you never had it. I have all the proofs.
1 The letter from the Company saying I was covered for full converge. but now they are saying it was an error. then i have the proof of calling them during that time. I submitted the proof. The number what they gave me. Then it took them to get back to me after one week. They just got one page. They never got anything. Then i sent to different number. Then again after one week. They said they never got any thing. Like this they were just treating me very badly. Wasting my time & putting me through hell. At last on last friday i sent them all the pages again. Now today they called me & saying they will be working on it & end of the day or by end of the week. They will be giving me an answer.

They cross all the limits of humanity. Now i just want to get back to them. For what they have treated me so badly. Put me & treat me like this. Last few weeks has been gone in depression & agony.

So can someone please guide me towards the correct directions.

Thanks a lots... For every one ......

Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 10:14 am Post Subject: SUE

My family doctor and my spine specialist have told me to sue my workman comp. Insurance. For bad faith and taking so long to approve my surgery, but I don't know any lawyers I benn hur and its already going to be a year and they still has not approved anything.

Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:44 am Post Subject:

RCA . . .

MY FAMILY DOCTOR AND MY SPINE SPECIALIST HAVE TOLD ME TO SUE MY WORKSMANS COMP. INSU. FOR BAD FAITH



And what does the Workers' Compensation doctor have to say? If you want to get a lawyer, just look in your local telephone book. There will probably be 100 or more willing to take the case.

Jackson Dorson . . .

Incident occur back in June 28th 09 a car hit me from the back. Around 7:44pm on same day.
Before that i just added the converge around 6:44pm. PST. I called my car insurance company. I request them to add full converge. I got into accident they took me to the medical & did the entire check up & i was discharge by end of the day. I came home was not able to move my body. I called my insurance company to file the claim. They just denied to cover me.



You were "damaged" by a third party. Your insurance company probably has no responsibility for your damages. Why are you not pursuing the claim with the insurance company of the party who caused your damages?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 06:19 pm Post Subject: harassment

on 11-30-2010, my nephew took my car without my permission and had an accident! i immediately called my insurance company to report the accident. I asked them what i should do? i was given a claim number and was told some one will call me in 24 hours. when i did not hear from them i called back, and was told no one was assinged to my case yet. two days later i was contacted and asked if it was ok if they taped the conversation, i said yes. during the conversation i was asked if i filed a report that the car was stolen? i said no should i go now? he stated that he did not think that it would be needed because i gave a report on tape. two days later another claims rep. calls and tell me that i need to file a report i went to the police station tryed to file a report, and was told that the car was not missing it was recovered. now the insurance company is threating not to pay for the car, and asking if i do not get a document with robert (my nephew's) address on it my claim will be denided. I raised Robert from the time he was seven until he left my home at the age of sixteen years old, and he have always had his mail sent to my house, as my son and daughter still to this date. what should i do?

Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 09:09 pm Post Subject: car wreck

my son was in a wreck a has alot a bills the policy only pays 50000 can i sue orf the rest

Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2011 08:56 pm Post Subject: Bike Insurance

Hi Sil,

Hope you can help me with this.

I had an accident and my bike was totaled. Surprisingly, the insurance company get valuations of $4,000 for the bike (a 2004 BMW 1150cc) from NADA and Black Book, which are way too low.

My dealer quoted the bike at $7,000 using Kelley Book and the internet all sales are at around that level.

The insurance company says that I can not sue them and I have to pay for an appraisal, as per my policy, which would eat any benefit.

This is very unfair. Can I still sue them in small claims court? should I use the motor vehicle form? what else can I do to pressure the insurance company?

Best regards

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