When policyholders pay their insurance premiums, they expect that their insurance companies will act in their best interest. This is not always the case. Florida and most states recognize that insurance companies, like all contracting parties, must honor their contractual obligations in good faith. The law requires that insurance companies act fairly and honestly towards their insured and settle claims when they can and should do so.

Insurance companies often:

• Fail to fairly and thoroughly investigate a claim.
• Fail to provide justification for denying a claim.
• Fail to offer the full value of a claim’s worth.
• Fail to settle a claim when it should have and could have done so.

When an insurance company is presented with a claim and refuses to cover the claim, the policyholder is forced to defend itself without the assistance of its insurance company. Often times, this failure of the insurance company to cover a claim results in a settlement or judgment against the policyholder for an amount above and beyond what the policy limits of the applicable insurance policy would have covered.

Our attorneys are dedicated to providing our clients with the highest level of representation regarding bad faith in both first and third party insurance claims.

First-Party Bad Faith Claims
A first-party bad faith claim occurs when an individual or business has made a direct claim to an insurance company and a settlement has been refused/denied, delayed, or only partially paid.