Sometimes an insurer fails to uphold its promise to the insured. Sometimes insurance companies prioritize profits and commit deceptive practices where they intentionally misinterpret their own policy language to avoid paying any claims. They also will try to unreasonably delay resolving a claim, make arbitrary demands regarding the incident and your proof of loss. they even resolve to using abusive tactics and some have even gone as far as asking the at fault party to contribute to a settlement. These games are known as a breach of implied duty of good faith and fair dealing. When an insurance company does this, it may give rise to a bad faith lawsuit.

In some but not all jurisdictions, an insurance company owes an absolute duty to their client to settle a reasonably clear claim in which the policyholder is liable within policy limits. For example, lets say someone runs a red light and strikes someone on a bicycle. The cyclist suffers serious injuries and sues the red light runner, making a demand for policy limits of $50,000, even though the actual damages are higher than $50,000. If the insurer wrongfully refuses to make a reasonable settlement offer that is within policy limits that they are responsible for, you have the basis for a bad-faith lawsuit against the insurer.

Here, Attorney Andrew Finklestein explains how these types of cases work and how they arise in injury cases.