California Insurance Bad Faith Lawyers for Claims Against Insurers in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, Attorneys in San Diego, Orange County, San Bernardino, San Jose, Santa Clara County and Sacramento.
Our California Insurance bad faith attorneys help our clients pursue their claims against insurance companies throughout the state of California, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, from San Diego to Sacramento, from Orange County and San Bernardino, Fresno, San Jose, Santa Clara County. We will litigate cases involving and insurer's denial of your claim under auto/underinsured motorist policies, health insurance policies, homeowners, fire, flood, earthquake and natural disaster, as well as business loss insurance. If you have suffered an insured loss, or if the insurance company has denied your claim, or has rescinded your insurance, our insurance bad faith lawyers are here to serve you. Free Consultations. Our California insurance bad faith lawyers offer free consultations. Simply fill out our Case Evaluation Request and one of our insurance bad faith attorneys will contact you to discuss your case, offer our preliminary case evaluation and initial recommendations.
Our California Insurance Bad Faith Lawyers Explain the Breadth of Cases We Will Consider Involving Insurer Denial of Claims or Rescision of Health Insurance Policies, Life, Homeowners, Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Disability, Business Loss Insurance and Auto Comprehensive and Underinsured Motorist Policies. Our California Insurance Bad Faith Attorneys Will Explain Other Types of Insurance Claims as Where an Insurer Refuses to Provide a Defense or Indemnify the Insured, or Files a Declaratory Relief Action to Ask the Court to Find an Exclusion Applicable or Otherwise Attempt to Avoid its Responsibilities to the Insured. Our California Bad Faith Lawyers Will Consider Representing Those With Claims Against Their Insurers Throughout the State of California, from Sacramento to San Diego, from Orange County and San Bernardino to San Jose and Santa Clara County and from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area.
The first type of insurer bad faith that our California insurance lawyers will discuss was publicized perhaps most pervasively in recent years in connection with the debate on health care reform, although the same type of callous insurance industry tactics to reduce insurer liability by wrongful denial of claims and rescision of insurance policies certainly cut across every type of insurance from homeowners insurance, involving bad faith refusals to pay covered losses for fires, floods and earthquakes, life insurance, and even business loss insurance claims.
Many poignant testimonials were discussed in the health care debate in which it became much more well known the health insurance industry's strategies to increase profits by denying covered medical insurance claims or by rescinding the health insurance policies where it appeared that the insured was seriously ill or would require long term treatment. It had become a cost/benefit analysis for the insurance companies, and where the policy holder became seriously ill so that the cost of paying the insured's claims substantially exceeded the monthly payments expected from the insured, the insurance companies had internal policies to deny the claims and rescind the policies. One common insurance company tactic that has been common knowledge to our California insurance bad faith lawyers that came out in the health insurance debate was If the claimant was seriously ill, the insurance companies would have teams of employees who would look back to the original insurance application and then conduct investigations into the claimants life medical history to find the most insignificant and often totally unrelated omission in an answer to a application question to "justify" the rescission of the insurance contract. A claimant may have contracted cancer, and the insurance company will assert that the insured "failed to disclose" that he or she had gone to a hospital years ago for a toe infection and on that basis refuse to pay the claimant's substantial medical expense for the cancer treatment.
All too often, even though the insured may have long forgotten the minor hospital visit years ago, he or she would accept the insurer's explanation for the rescission of the policy or the insurer's refusal to pay the claim with the effect that the insureds would often be required to drain their bank accounts and retirement accounts, the college funds that they had set aside for their children, lose their homes and go bankrupt to pay the medical expenses. And as our California bad faith attorneys have seen time and time again, the same would be the case where a fire or flood or earthquake has severely damaged the insured's home, or where an insurer wrongfully denies covered business losses, and the same bad faith practices extend throughout the insurance industry. The insurance companies have a panoply of excuses for their refusals to pay claims and rescission of insurance contracts, from contentions that the expense or loss is not covered by the insurance contract to claims that coverage is excluded by the terms of the policy.
Our California insurance bad faith lawyers have found all too often that the insured may blame himself for not thinking of the toe infection and hospital visit years ago and his failure to include it on his insurance application or for his failure to read clearly the ambiguous fine print of the policy exclusions, or he may not know that he has a viable action against the insurance company, or may fear asserting his rights against the powerful insurance company.
But that is the time when the insured would benefit most by obtaining the advice of an insurance bad faith attorney. Insurance policies are contracts, and any ambiguity in the contract will be resolved against the insurer, not against the insured. And inferred into every contract of insurance is a covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and the insurer may be held liable on the "tort" claim of bad faith. Our California insurance bad faith lawyers represent those who have had their claims wrongfully denied or their insurance contracts wrongfully rescinded. And the clients can recover "compensatory damages" which would include, for example the medical expenses that the insurer refused to pay including future medical expenses where the insurer has rescinded the contract, or for the losses caused by the fire or flood or other natural disaster. And where the insurance company is guilty of oppression, fraud or malice, the insured may also assert a claim for punitive damages - damages to punish and set an example of the insurance company for its bad faith - a claim for often well in excess of the amount of compensatory damages.
If you have suffered a loss which you feel was covered by your insurance policy and your insurer has denied your claim or rescinded your insurance contract, regardless of the insurance companies excuses for its failures to pay your claim, you should want to know your rights.
Our California insurance bad faith lawyers welcome you to contact us for a free attorney consultation. You may simply fill out the e-mail "Case Evaluation Request" and one of our insurance bad faith attorneys will contact you to discuss your case, he will provide you with his initial case evaluation and preliminary recommendations. Our bad faith lawyers serve all of Northern and Southern California from San Diego to Sacramento, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles, from San Bernardino and Orange County to San Diego and Santa Clara County. Our case consultations are free, without any charge or obligation. We are here to serve you.
Our California Bad Faith Attorneys Will Consider Representing Clients in Additional Actions Against Insurance Companies and Insurance Agents and Agencies.
The controversies that can arise between an insured and an insurance company are as varied as the types of insurance, and our California insurance bad faith lawyers will consider representing those who have suffered substantial losses in the broadest range of insurance disputes.
If you have obtained insurance, such as liability insurance, homeowners insurance or malpractice insurance, as examples, purchasing protection against lawsuits by others, and the insurance company refuses to provide a lawyer to defend you in the lawsuit or refuses to settle the claim within the policy limits or refuses to pay the judgment rendered against you at trial, you may have a valid claim against the insurance company. Liability policies impose two principle obligations upon the insurance company, the obligation to defend the insured and the obligation to indemnify him. The obligation to defend requires the insurance company to provide a competent legal defense to the lawsuit, and the obligation to indemnify requires the insurance company to pay the amount of the judgement obtained against you up to the insurance policy limits. The insurance company also has the obligation in good faith to settle case if a demand for settlement is made within the insurance company's policy limits, and if the insurer refuses to settle the case within the policy limits, and a judgment after trial is obtained in excess of the policy limits, then the insurance company is required to pay the entire judgement even though it exceeds the policy limits.
Our insurance bad faith lawyers will also consider actions against insurance brokers, agents and insurance agencies where they have either negligently failed in their duties in connection with obtaining the insurance you purchase. In some cases it may be discovered indeed that your agent has fraudulently misrepresented the terms or coverage of the policy. In such cases again you may be able to recover your compensatory damages, and where the agent's conduct was fraudulent, you may also be able to obtain punitive damages often well in excess of your compensatory damages.
Our Insurance Bad Faith Attorneys Will Explain the State of the Law Regarding Third Party Bad Faith and the Alternatives the Injured Plaintiff May Have in Cases In Which the Defendant's Insurer Has Refused to Pay a Claim or Has Denied Coverage for an Insured Claim.
The law of California used to provide the injured a right to sue the insurance company of the individual or company which negligently or otherwise wrongfully injured him for bad faith. Unfortunately, in 1988 the California law was changed so that we can no longer sue for third party insurance bad faith. There have been efforts by our California bad faith attorneys, our trial lawyer associations and concerned citizen groups to regain the right to sue for third party bad faith but as of the time this page was drafted we have yet to be successful in regaining this important right. The insurance companies may defend their insured with a "reservation of rights" meaning reserving the right not to pay any judgment obtained, or the insurer may refuse both to defend and indemnify its insured. If the insured doesn't have sufficient money to pay the claim, the injured may find that even with a judgment against the defendant there is no simple way to obtain the adjudged damages.
However, there are options that are available to the lawyer sophisticated in insurance issues that can often obtain a satisfactory result for the client. In some cases it may be possible to contractually exchange the right to execute the judgment for the defendant's first party rights against the insured. In other cases a declaratory relief action may be filed in which the insurance company's obligations to pay the judgement can be determined. One such case is discussed in the left column of this page.
Another common case is where the injured plaintiff makes a demand for settlement within the defendant's policy limits, the insurance company can be compelled to pay the entire judgment obtained against its insured even though the judgment is far in excess of the policy limits.
Our Law Group lawyers represent those who have been seriously injured in auto accidents, as the result of medical malpractice or defective drugs, product liability, food poisoning, elder abuse, premises liability and business fraud. When insurance issues arise, we will evaluate them and advise our clients on the ways in which the insurance hurdles can be surmounted. We prefer to offer our services to clients who have yet to file their litigation so that we can manage the litigation to maximize the opportunity to assure that the claims stated in the complaint will be claims that will fall within the insurance policy and where prudent to file statutory demands for settlement within the policy limits to assure that the full damages we recover for our clients at trial will be compensated. However, we will also selectively consider substantial cases in which other attorneys have initiated or tried the case but have been unsuccessful in convincing the other party's insurance company to pay the judgment.
Our lawyers practicing auto liability, medical malpractice, product liability, premises and elder abuse litigation as well as our insurance bad faith lawyers again welcome you to contact us for a free consultation throughout California, from San Diego to Sacramento, from San Jose and Santa Clara County to San Bernardino and Orange County, from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area, we are here to serve you. Simply fill out the "Case Evaluation Request" and one of our California insurance bad faith lawyers will contact you to provide our initial evaluation of your case and our preliminary recommendations.
*Most recent Jury Verdict:
$900,000 obtained from medical malpractice insurance company after company had filed a declaratory relief case requesting the Court to find that coverage under the medical malpractice policy did not apply and was excluded by the terms of its physicians' malpractice insurance policy. The plaintiffs brought an action against a two physicians and a hospital on several counts including medical malpractice, fraud, and violations of the California Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Experimentation Act, among others. The medical malpractice insurers agreed to defend the physicians under a reservation of rights, denying coverage, and denying the obligation to indemnify the physicians for any judgment rendered against them. One of the physicians also went bankrupt, and all the defendants appealed. Attorney Henke obtained relief from the bankruptcy stay and sued the physician in bankruptcy court in an adversary action urging that the fraud judgment was not susceptible to being discharged in bankruptcy. He also defendant the appeal, and defended against the malpractice insurance company's declaratory relief action. In the declaratory relief action the insurance company relied on two policy exclusions, one explicitly for fraud and the other one for actions arising out of the physicians' use of an unapproved drug. Attorney Henke won the appeal, he succeeded on summary judgment in the bankruptcy court on his adversary complaint resulting in a denial of bankruptcy relief for the physician, and thus putting the malpractice insurance carrier at risk to its insured, the insurance company capitulated on its declaratory relief action and agreed to pay the plaintiffs the full $900,000 judgment with costs and interest.
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
$900,000 obtained from medical malpractice insurance company after company had filed a declaratory relief case requesting the Court to find that coverage under the medical malpractice policy did not apply and was excluded by the terms of its physicians' malpractice insurance policy. The plaintiffs brought an action against a two physicians and a hospital on several counts including medical malpractice, fraud, and violations of the California Protection of Human Subjects in Medical Experimentation Act, among others. The medical malpractice insurers agreed to defend the physicians under a reservation of rights, denying coverage, and denying the obligation to indemnify the physicians for any judgment rendered against them. One of the physicians also went bankrupt, and all the defendants appealed. Attorney Henke obtained relief from the bankruptcy stay and sued the physician in bankruptcy court in an adversary action urging that the fraud judgment was not susceptible to being discharged in bankruptcy. He also defendant the appeal, and defended against the malpractice insurance company's declaratory relief action. In the declaratory relief action the insurance company relied on two policy exclusions, one explicitly for fraud and the other one for actions arising out of the physicians' use of an unapproved drug. Attorney Henke won the appeal, he succeeded on summary judgment in the bankruptcy court on his adversary complaint resulting in a denial of bankruptcy relief for the physician, and thus putting the malpractice insurance carrier at risk to its insured, the insurance company capitulated on its declaratory relief action and agreed to pay the plaintiffs the full $900,000 judgment with costs and interest.
*The results obtained in the cases listed were dependent upon the facts of the cases, and the results will differ in other cases based on different facts
Bad Faith Lawyers Fight Insurance Companies in Auto Cases to Recover Uninsured Motorist Coverage Where Negligent Driver is Uninsured or Underinsured.
Given that in all too many auto accident cases the seriously injured find that the negligent driver was uninsured or underinsured, many drivers are purchasing uninsured motorist coverage. While the numbers of uninsured drivers has gone down as the result of requirements in California that drivers present their insurance information along with their drivers licenses when stopped for traffic violations, more and more carry only the "statutory minimum" $15/30,000 auto liability policies. If the client has been seriously injured, the negligent driver's $15,000 policy limit per person will be woefully inadequate, even to pay a fraction of the medical bills, let alone the client's general damages and past and future earnings losses. In addition to provide coverage where the other party is uninsured, Uninsured Motorist, UM coverage also covers the difference between the amount of the negligent driver's policy and the policy limits of the UM coverage.
The insurance companies providing UM coverage will sometimes pay the full amount claim up to the limits of their policy; however, in many cases they will employ the tactics that those in auto accidents are too familiar, making unjustified offers to settle the claim for but a fraction of the amount due, telling their policy holders that its the last offer they will make, and then refraining from calling them back for months at a time. The insurance bad faith lawyer has a number of legal mechanisms to obtain the full policy limits, and obtain payment quickly. One tool includes making at "Section 998" statutory demand for the policy limits giving the insurance company 30 days to decide whether to pay. The client wins, one way or the other. If the insurance company pays the policy limits, then the client has obtained the full benefit of his coverage and quick payment. If the insurance company fails to pay within the 30 day time period, then it has "opened up its policy." What that means is that if the uninsured motorist policy has a $250,000 limit, after it rejects the statutory demand for its policy, now the rights of the claimant against the insurance company are not limited to $250,000. If the seriously injured clients damages, including his general damages, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life damages, his past and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses are proven up in the millions of dollars, the insurance company will be liable to pay the full measure of damages.
On other pages of this site we discuss our availability to consider serious injury auto accident cases, motorcycle and big rig truck accident cases, and on our Serious Injury Lawyers page we discuss our methods of demonstrating the full extent of our clients general and special economic damages. We can fight our clients' auto accident cases through to judgment, and we can fight the cases against our clients' uninsured motorist insurance carrier. In many cases we may obtain much quicker settlements of each where the insurance companies know that we will use all the tools in the legal armamentarium for our clients cause.
Given that in all too many auto accident cases the seriously injured find that the negligent driver was uninsured or underinsured, many drivers are purchasing uninsured motorist coverage. While the numbers of uninsured drivers has gone down as the result of requirements in California that drivers present their insurance information along with their drivers licenses when stopped for traffic violations, more and more carry only the "statutory minimum" $15/30,000 auto liability policies. If the client has been seriously injured, the negligent driver's $15,000 policy limit per person will be woefully inadequate, even to pay a fraction of the medical bills, let alone the client's general damages and past and future earnings losses. In addition to provide coverage where the other party is uninsured, Uninsured Motorist, UM coverage also covers the difference between the amount of the negligent driver's policy and the policy limits of the UM coverage.
The insurance companies providing UM coverage will sometimes pay the full amount claim up to the limits of their policy; however, in many cases they will employ the tactics that those in auto accidents are too familiar, making unjustified offers to settle the claim for but a fraction of the amount due, telling their policy holders that its the last offer they will make, and then refraining from calling them back for months at a time. The insurance bad faith lawyer has a number of legal mechanisms to obtain the full policy limits, and obtain payment quickly. One tool includes making at "Section 998" statutory demand for the policy limits giving the insurance company 30 days to decide whether to pay. The client wins, one way or the other. If the insurance company pays the policy limits, then the client has obtained the full benefit of his coverage and quick payment. If the insurance company fails to pay within the 30 day time period, then it has "opened up its policy." What that means is that if the uninsured motorist policy has a $250,000 limit, after it rejects the statutory demand for its policy, now the rights of the claimant against the insurance company are not limited to $250,000. If the seriously injured clients damages, including his general damages, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life damages, his past and future medical expenses and past and future earnings losses are proven up in the millions of dollars, the insurance company will be liable to pay the full measure of damages.
On other pages of this site we discuss our availability to consider serious injury auto accident cases, motorcycle and big rig truck accident cases, and on our Serious Injury Lawyers page we discuss our methods of demonstrating the full extent of our clients general and special economic damages. We can fight our clients' auto accident cases through to judgment, and we can fight the cases against our clients' uninsured motorist insurance carrier. In many cases we may obtain much quicker settlements of each where the insurance companies know that we will use all the tools in the legal armamentarium for our clients cause.
©2012 The Ray Henke Law Group