Insurance

People buy insurance to have peace of mind about their health, family and property. It can be incredibly frustrating and distressing when your insurer refuses to compensate you for the kind of loss you bought your policy to cover. We can help in these circumstances.

Insurance policies are contracts. When you submit a claim to your insurance company for coverage under a policy you are asking an insurance adjustor to interpret your contract and decide whether there is coverage for your loss.

Coverage is often denied because your insurance company concludes that the type of loss you have suffered is not a covered loss under the policy. Other times it is denied because your insurance company concludes you have failed to prove what you have lost.

Whether the coverage denial is correct frequently depends on answering two questions:

• What is the policy intended to cover?
• Is there evidence supporting the loss?

Determining what the policy was intended to cover is a legal question for your lawyer. There is a substantial body of caselaw interpreting insurance contracts like yours down to the smallest detail.

Insurance contracts document a relationship between you and your insurance company. Like any relationship, there are obligations flowing both ways.

Insurance companies are obligated to act in a good faith manner when they investigate and make decisions about your claim. At the same time, you owe your insurance company a duty of good faith. This means you must cooperate by providing your insurer with the necessary information regarding your loss and not make false statements about what happened.

What constitutes a breach of the duty of good faith by your insurance company? There are many circumstances where this may occur, but traditionally a breach occurs where your insurer fails to asses the merits of your claim in a balanced manner or attempts to deny or delay payment to you to take advantage of your vulnerability. If this occurs you should immediately speak with a lawyer.