You may be experiencing a great deal of pain and suffering as a result of an automobile accident, premises liability accident, or other type of accident that left you injured. Your medical bills are beginning to pile up, and more are on the way because your injuries require rehabilitation and follow up care. To make matters worse, it seems as though your many telephone calls, emails, and letters to your insurance company are being ignored. You may even have been informed that your insurer has denied your claim for damages. If this is happening to you, you are likely to feel frustrated and angry, and you probably wonder whether there is anything else that you can do. Fortunately, this does not have to be the end of the road for your claim.
Insurance companies are required by law to act in good faith, and to carry out their business in a fair manner. When you purchase insurance, you enter into a contract with your insurance company. That contract requires both you and the insurance company to act in good faith, and to deal fairly with each other. Some examples of how an insurance company might act in bad faith include improperly investigating claims, failing to review claims within a reasonable time, consistently “losing” claim-related documentation, and denying claims for no justifiable reason.
The best way to fight back against a difficult insurer is to retain an experienced Kansas personal injury attorney as soon in the claims process as you can. Many times, an insurance company which has been dragging its feet in responding to an insured’s claim will return a prompt response once the insured retains an attorney and the insurance company receives a letter from that attorney. The same goes for settlement offers. Insurance companies are looking to increase their profits by settling each claim for as little as they possibly can. Offering a settlement which is smaller than the actual value of a claim is one way that they can save money, if the insured is unaware of the true value of their claim and accepts the low offer. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you to determine what your claim is actually worth, so that you do not accept a settlement offer which is not adequate to compensate you for your injuries and damages.
If your claim has already been denied, it is important that you ask your insurance company for a written explanation of the reasons why your claim was denied. If you believe that your claim was unreasonably denied, consult with an attorney to discuss your options. It is important to note that in Kansas, since bad faith insurance claims do not have their own common law cause of action, any claim of this nature would be a breach of contract claim. Spencer v. Aetna Life & Casualty, 227 Kan. 914 (1980). The Kansas Insurance Commissioner does have the authority to redress violations of the Unfair Claims Settlement Processes Act, (KSA 40-2404-9), so it is important that you report your insurance company to the Commissioner if you believe that they have violated one or more of the provisions of the Act.
The best way to ensure that your personal injury claim is settled fairly and in an expedient manner is to seek assistance from a skilled Kansas personal injury attorney. Insurance companies do not always play fair, and having a skilled professional on your side serves to level the playing field. To learn more about how a Kansas personal injury attorney can help you to obtain the settlement that you deserve, please call Cummings & Cummings, L.C.C. today at (316) 264-1548.
