You pay into your insurance policy and expect the insurance company to fulfill its legal obligations under the contract; for example, if you cause an accident and the other motorist files a claim against your auto insurance, it’s meant to protect you from direct liability. When someone else causes you a personal injury in Marysville covered by their liability insurance, you expect their insurance company to cover your losses. But can you sue a Washington insurance company? Under RCW 48.30.015, Washington tort law allows lawsuits against insurance companies for bad faith practices.
What Is Insurance Company Bad Faith Practice?
Insurance companies often use common tactics to devalue, delay, or dispute claims, but those strategies don’t always rise to bad faith. Only when an insurance company violates the language of its contract with the policyholder does it rise to legal bad-faith practice. Common examples include the following:
- Rejecting a valid claim without giving a clear reason
- Failing to investigate claims or unreasonably delaying investigation
- Deliberately misrepresenting policy terms
- Asking for redundant or useless documents
- Delaying payment after approval
- Failing to provide legal representation for a policyholder who is the target of a lawsuit in a claim that should be covered (refusal to defend)
- Using aggression, threats, intimidation, or coercion to dissuade a policyholder from pursuing a covered claim
When an insurance company engages in bad faith practices, a policyholder can sue the insurance company.
What Can I Get From a Lawsuit Against an Insurer for Their Bad Faith Practices in Washington?
When you hire a Washington bad faith practice lawyer, your attorney will examine the language of the policy to pinpoint the company’s actions that violate their contract. Then, they file a lawsuit against the insurer in civil court and present the matter at trial with a well-executed legal strategy.
Fortunately, juries tend to side with injury victims over large, powerful insurance companies that protect their profits at a claimant’s expense. This often results in favorable outcomes for the claimant through positive jury verdicts and large monetary awards.
A successful claim proving the insurance company violated the terms of its contract with a policyholder through bad-faith actions typically recovers the original compensation owed to the claimant under the contract’s terms, plus any extra damages caused by the delay, court costs, and sometimes compensation for the emotional distress caused by the unwarranted delay in coverage and the insurer’s bad-faith actions. In the worst cases of contract violations and bad-faith practices, the court may award punitive damages. Punitive damages are not compensation; they are meant to punish the insurance company and deter future actions. However, the injury victim receives the monetary amount and can use it to substantially increase their total financial recovery.
Why Do Insurers Use Tactics Against Claimants, Including Bad Faith Practices?
Some common tactics may not rise to the level of contract violations, but it’s not uncommon for insurance companies to protect their profits by using other frustrating tactics. For instance, an insurer may record your phone calls and use your words out of context against you. They may ask for a medical authorization to examine your injury record, but then have you sign a blanket medical authorization that allows them to examine your entire medical history to find pre-existing conditions or previous injuries to claim that these are the true cause of your symptoms.
An assertive personal injury attorney in Washington is ready to protect their client against these and other tactics that interfere with your right to full compensation under Washington’s law of contributory negligence.