New York Bad Faith Insurance Attorney Serving NYC and the Hudson Valley
Insurance companies are supposed to protect you should something unpleasant occur. That’s what you pay for–your auto insurance covers you in the event of a car accident, your health insurance covers you should you become injured or sick. Unfortunately, insurance providers care most about their profits and least about their customers. When insurers wrongfully deny claims or engage in other shady tactics designed to avoid paying out what they owe, they must be taken to task for their wrongdoing. The bad faith insurance lawyers at Dupée & Monroe help New York insurance policyholders get the benefits they are owed and hold unscrupulous insurance companies liable for bad faith behavior.
What Is a Bad Faith Insurance Claim?
When you purchase an insurance policy, whether it’s life insurance, disability insurance, health insurance, property insurance, or any other kind, you are entering into a contract with the insurance provider. You agree to pay your monthly premiums (or to have them paid through your employer), and the insurer agrees in turn to pay you the benefits you are owed upon a triggering event. The insurer is also tacitly agreeing to follow the principles of “good faith and fair dealing.” That means that the insurer is committing to evaluating your claims objectively based on science, evidence, policy language, and the law, and that the insurer will not otherwise try to cheat you out of the benefits you are owed. The duty of good faith is imposed by common law (meaning judge-made law) as well as by statute.
When insurers violate the principles of good faith and fair dealing in order to protect their profit margins, they are engaging in bad faith conduct. Insurers who commit bad faith behavior to avoid paying the benefits they owe are liable not only for the benefits guaranteed by their policies; they may owe aggrieved customers additional damages for trying to swindle them. A bad faith insurance lawyer can help you evaluate your situation if you believe you’ve been subject to insurance company misconduct. You have the right to be treated fairly, and a New York insurance dispute attorney can help you fight back if you are being subjected to bad faith conduct.
Types of Bad Faith Conduct by Insurers
Purveyors of all types of insurance engage in a wide range of bad faith conduct. Anything designed to deliberately mislead policyholders and avoid paying out the money the insurers owe can constitute bad faith conduct. The insurance bad faith attorneys at Dupée & Monroe are ready to help you protect your finances and your family if you experience bad faith conduct such as:
- Wrongful claim denial based on a deliberately false reading of the evidence, medical science, or policy language
- Failing to conduct an investigation of your claim before denial
- Unjustifiably delaying investigation of a claim
- Making repeated, unjustified, and burdensome requests for documents and evidence to delay making a claim decision
- Failing to provide the reason for a claim denial
- Making unreasonably low settlement offers while threatening litigation
- Paying only partial benefits or unjustifiably delaying benefits payments
- Deliberately letting policies lapse without proper notice
- Failing to defend you against a third-party claim
- Refusing to pay your legal defense costs regarding a third-party claim
Whether your claim has been improperly denied or the insurer is engaging in delay tactics designed to browbeat you into accepting less than your claim is worth so that you can more quickly get the benefits you desperately need, you can and should fight back. The seasoned insurance bad faith lawyers at Dupée & Monroe are here to help.
Keep Your Insurance Company Honest With Help from a New York Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer
If you were involved in a car accident or other personal injury incident and your insurance provider refuses to pay out on your claim, or if they engage in other bad faith conduct meant to deny you the benefits you are owed, you do not have to deal with the consequences alone. Reach out to the passionate and professional insurance bad faith attorneys at Dupée & Monroe for a free consultation on your claims, at 845-294-8900.
