Can I sue my insurance company for taking too long?
If the insurance company has violated its own obligations to you under California law, you may be able to file a lawsuit directly against them. Quincey Law helps policyholders fight for their rights when the insurance company is walking over them.
California law imposes strict timeliness deadlines on an insurance company when processing and responding to your claim. Although missing these deadlines is not an automatic basis for liability, there may be facts under which you can sue the insurance company for damages. Everything depends on the facts and circumstances of your situation and what the insurance company has specifically done.
Call Quincey Law when you suspect that your insurance company has committed wrongdoing. They are not above the law, and we work to hold them accountable on your behalf.
Insurance companies have been known to drag things out when you have filed a claim. It is very rare that you have hassle-free experience and get your money very shortly after filing your claim. Whether they are short-staffed, or there are more nefarious considerations at play, you can expect a wait when you have filed an insurance claim.
California Law Imposes Timeliness Requirements on Insurance Companies
California gives you various rights as a consumer, and the right to a prompt response and payment from the insurance company is one of them. To be clear, there is a fair amount of work that the insurance company has to do when responding to your claim. The law also requires them to perform a reasonable investigation of your claim before they respond, keeping them from blindly denying it. However, the insurance company also does not have an unlimited amount of time to perform this investigation.
You always have the option of filing a bad faith lawsuit against the insurance company for egregious conduct. As a party to a contract, the insurance company owes you a duty to act in good faith, and they are also required to do so by California law.
Not Every Single Delay Is Bad Faith
There is a fine line between taking too long to respond to a claim and bad faith. You have various rights as a California consumer, and one of them is for the insurance company to acknowledge and respond to your claim within a certain amount of time. Under California law, insurance companies have 40 calendar days once they receive proof of your claim to inform you whether they accept or deny it. They must also recognize your claim within 15 days of receiving it.
Missing the deadline does not automatically mean that the insurance company is acting in bad faith. First, there may be reasons for the delay. There may have been a widespread event, and the insurance company is simply overrun with claims. Second, the insurance company could face penalties from California, but they have still not crossed the line to bad faith. Much depends on the facts and circumstances of your own situation.
The California law states that the insurance company must act “reasonably promptly” to respond to your claim. Bad faith often requires an egregious fact pattern where the insurance company has consciously disregarded the obligations that they have to you, both as a policyholder of theirs and under California law.
You Need to Get Around the Insurance Company’s Excuses
The challenge is that insurance companies have all sorts of tricks that they can use to try to get around timeliness deadlines. They can claim that your claim is missing certain required information. If you have filed a health insurance claim, they may say that they need more documentation from your doctor. They can keep these requests up for an extended period of time. You would have to show that the insurance company’s conduct was a pattern designed to delay your claim past the deadline, and it is not always an easy task in a lawsuit.
If your lawsuit against the insurance company succeeds, you would be entitled to damages directly from them for what their conduct did to you. These damages could include your economic losses and the emotional distress that they have caused you. In certain cases, you may even be able to receive punitive damages when the insurance company’s conduct was particularly disturbing.
Call a Southern California Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer Today
Reach out to the Orange County law firm of Quincey Law when the insurance company is giving you the runaround. We can learn more about your case and advise you whether you can sue the insurance company directly. Call us today at 866-945-9175 to schedule a free consultation.
Nicholas Quincey is the founder of Quincey Law, and has over a decade of experience of handling insurance claims denials and personal injury matters for people throughout California. We have pursued insurance bad faith claims for people involving life insurance, health insurance, homeowners and disability insurance. We also work with clients and families who need assistance filing and pursuing a personal injury matter. Learn more here.