Denver Bad Faith Insurance Attorney
Insurance companies have certain duties to policyholders under the insurance policy and Colorado law. When your insurance company fails to perform their duties, you may suffer significant financial consequences. Our Denver bad faith insurance attorney holds insurers accountable. Learn more about how we can help you. At Front Range Injury Attorneys, our insurance bad faith attorneys protect clients from unethical and illegal insurance practices involving auto accident and other negligence claims. When you buy an insurance policy, you pay premiums in exchange for the benefits of the policy. Those benefits are to protect you from financial losses after an accident or covered injury. When your insurance company fails to provide benefits under the policy in a timely manner, you suffer the consequences of their bad faith acts. You may have a claim against your insurance company to recover for their bad faith. Contact us for a free case review to assess your bad faith claim under Colorado law.
What is insurance bad faith in Colorado?
Insurance bad faith occurs when your insurance company fails to follow through with the terms of your policy in a timely manner. Insurance companies have a duty to act in good faith towards their insureds. When your insurer fails to perform its contractual duties in good faith, you may have bad faith claims to pursue.
What is a first party bad faith insurance claim?
First party bad faith happens when your insurance company fails to timely investigate and pay benefits due to you under your contract. This includes medical payments coverage (medpay) and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.
What is a third party bad faith insurance claim?
Third party bad faith occurs when your insurer fails to take appropriate steps to indemnify you from liability from people who believe you caused them injury. Your liability coverage has a duty to reasonably indemnify and defend you from injury claims under the policy.
Why Trust Front Range Injury Attorneys?
At Front Range Injury Attorneys we care about helping our clients throughout their cases. We believe clients are best served when our personal injury attorneys participate in their cases from start to finish. We help our clients get the best treatment for their injuries. By building up your case from the beginning, we build a strong case to get the best results.
No Fee Unless You Win
Our law firm represents clients on a contingency fee basis. That means you don't pay us until we recover on your case.
Expertise with your bad faith claims
Our Denver personal injury attorneys work from start to finish on your case to protect you from bad faith. We will pursue your insurance company to get the benefits due under your policy. We get proven results with a 98% success rate.
Communication is key
We maintain communication with you through your case. We want you to know what's going on with your case and the work we're doing for you.
How we can help you
Watch this video to see managing attorney Adam Kielich discuss bad faith insurance claims and how our Denver, Colorado law office can help you recover for your losses.
Contact our law firm to discuss your Colorado bad faith insurance case. We offer free case reviews for injury and accident cases across the state.
Tell us about your case
Why you need a Colorado insurance bad faith attorney
You should be able to count on your insurance company to deliver on the terms of your policy. When your insurance company leaves you hanging because it declined to cover a claim or refused to address a claim in a timely manner, it can be difficult to know where to turn. Insurance companies make money by collecting premiums and paying as little as possible on claims. They have a financial incentive to find ways to delay and deny as many claims as possible. They want to make your problem their profit.
Often when insurance companies delay or deny claims, they leave you hanging without any idea what to do next. Our Denver insurance bad faith attorneys are the place to turn. We fight insurance companies to hold them accountable for honoring your premiums and the terms of their policy. Insurance companies hope you will simply go away after they deny or delay a claim. You don’t have the luxury of ignoring your accident claim and you deserve better. If the insurance company won’t do the right thing when we ask, we will meet them in court. Our bad faith lawyers are experienced with pursuing claims from insurance companies including Allstate, State Farm, Progressive, Liberty Mutual, AAA, Auto Owners, USAA and Farmer’s Insurance.
Insurance bad faith claims are often extremely technical claims. Small details can make or break a bad faith lawsuit. The insurance companies use their size and financial resources to fight every bad faith claim. You need an attorney on your side with the expertise and ability to stand up to the insurance company and expose their bad acts. Contact us to discuss your Colorado bad faith insurance case.
Types of insurance bad faith
When insurance companies fail to perform, or unreasonably delay performing, their duties under the contract and Colorado law, they may create a bad faith claim. Common bad faith acts include:
Failure to investigate claims
Insurance companies have a duty to promptly investigate all claims filed against your policy. These include claims you file for first party benefits like uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM) and claims filed by other people. Unreasonably delaying or failing to investigate may delay payment of benefits or result in losing evidence that proves you did not cause an accident.
Failure to timely evaluate a claim
Insurance companies have a duty to timely evaluate a claim to determine benefits that may be due under the policy. For first party claims, they have a duty to evaluate on an ongoing basis and promptly pay undisputed benefits due. If the insurance company failed to evaluate your claim and pay benefits due, you may have a claim for the failure to act in good faith.
Failure to cooperate
You have a duty to cooperate with your insurer’s investigation of a claim. If you fail to cooperate, the insurance company often can delay or deny payment on a claim until they can complete their investigation. Unfortunately, insurers sometimes use this policy provision to make unreasonable requests to delay paying or to insist you failed to cooperate. If this happens, you may have a bad faith claim under Colorado law.
Wrongful denial of coverage
An insurance company only has a duty to pay claims covered under the policy to the extent of the policy limits. Some claims filed may fall outside of the policy terms. The insurer has no duty to pay those claims. Sometimes insurance companies interpret their policies more narrowly than the policy language or how Colorado courts decided fall within insurance contracts. They use their narrow interpretation to deny paying your claim. If your insurance company wrongly denied a claim within the policy terms, you may have a bad faith claim.
Unreasonable delay or denial of payments on a first party claim
Colorado law requires insurers to reasonably evaluate first party claims, such as medpay and UM/UIM, and make prompt payments for all undisputed benefit amounts. Your insurance company cannot withhold payments until you agree to a final settlement. It also cannot require unreasonable steps before paying benefits. The insurer also must have a reasonable basis for its evaluation of your claim. If your insurer unreasonably refuses to pay or unreasonably underpays on your claim, contact our attorneys to discuss your case.
Failure to settle a third party claim
Your insurance company has a duty to indemnify you from liability within the terms of your contract. That means your insurance company must make reasonable efforts to settle covered claims within the policy limits to avoid personal exposure in a lawsuit. If a claimant sues you because your insurer failed to reasonably settle the claim, you may have a bad faith claim.
Failure to defend you in a lawsuit
Insurers have a duty to defend their insured from a lawsuit involving a covered claim. They must hire a defense attorney to represent you in litigation. If your insurance company failed to hire counsel, or their attorney poorly defended you, you may have a bad faith insurance claim.
What damages can you recover in a bad faith insurance claim?
The compensation, or money damages, you can recover in an insurance bad faith claim depend upon the type of bad faith act and how it financially harmed you.
A bad faith insurance claim or lawsuit may involve multiple legal claims under Colorado law. Each potential claim has its own rules for compensation you can recover. Statutory bad faith claims under Colorado Revised Statutes section 10-3-1116, a claimant can recover up to three times the covered benefit plus attorney’s fees and court costs. Depending upon the facts of your case, it may be advantageous to pursue other bad faith claims. You need an insurance bad faith attorney on your side with the expertise to pursue the strongest case for maximum compensation.
Contact our Denver bad faith insurance attorneys
The Denver bad faith insurance attorneys at Front Range Injury Attorneys have experience pursuing insurance companies for bad faith and fighting for the compensation you deserve. If you struggle with an insurance company refusing to pay on a valid claim or offering a lowball settlement, contact our Denver, Colorado law office for help. We offer free case reviews for insurance bad faith claims.
Frequently asked questions
Before filing an insurance bad faith claim or lawsuit, several steps should occur:
- A review of the insurance policy to assess whether the carrier failed to act in good faith
- Collecting evidence of the underlying claim and communication with the insurance company
- Attempts to resolve the claim with the insurance company
- Documentation from the insurer why it took the action you believe was not in good faith
You and your Denver bad faith insurance attorney will make strategic decisions about what to do when the insurer fails to do the right thing. That may include a complaint with the Colorado Department of Insurance and suing your insurance company.
A bad faith claim may arise from many acts by the insurance company. The specific bad faith claim you and your bad faith lawyer choose to pursue depends upon the specific facts of your case. Most bad faith claims involve the same elements as a negligence claim like an auto accident claim. These include:
- The insurer had a duty to act in good faith;
- It failed to perform that duty or perform it in a reasonable manner;
- That failure resulted in not receiving the benefit of the contract and/or other financial losses.
Your lawyer will thoroughly investigate your bad faith claim to determine the bad acts and which claims will get you the most compensation under Colorado law.
When your insurance company fails to perform its duties under your policy, you can sue your insurance company under Colorado law. Whether it makes sense to file a lawsuit or take a different approach depends on the facts of your case. Our attorneys will investigate your case and determine whether a lawsuit is the best approach.
There is no hard deadline for an insurance company to investigate a claim. Often insurance companies investigate liability issues within the first few weeks after they receive a claim. Depending upon the circumstances, an investigation may continue for months. Whether the insurance company is delaying decisions on a claim unreasonably depends on the facts involved and the reason why the investigation cannot reach a decision.