Most motorists in the state of Iowa and elsewhere in the nation take care to keep their car insurance payments on time and up-to-date. This provides motorists with a feeling of security if they are ever involved in a car accident. After all, you have fulfilled your end of your insurance contract by making your payments on time. Logically, you have no reason to expect that your insurer will not give you the same fair treatment.
When insurers fail to meet their obligations, lawmakers call this acting in bad faith, a practice not permitted under the nation’s insurance law. Insurance companies can engage in bad faith practices in a number of ways, each of them leaving you twice victimized. You first became a victim when your car accident occurred and then again when your insurer did not make good on the policy you purchased.
Below are some examples of bad faith practices in which some insurers may engage.
- Unreasonably refusing to pay for a valid insurance claim
- Failing to investigate your car accident claim properly
- Failing to act in your defense against a claim made against you
- Failing to settle your claim in a reasonable manner
Insurance companies know it is wrong to act in this way, but they also know that many policyholders will not pursue a bad faith insurance claim. This is why attorneys encourage car accident victims like you to talk in-depth about your insurance policies. Even if you are considering a personal injury claim against the other driver, a bad faith claim may increase the amount of compensation you can expect to recover.
Source: FindLaw, “What Is Bad Faith Insurance Law?,” accessed Feb. 05, 2018