When you sign an insurance contract and faithfully pay the premiums, you have an expectation that the insurer will cover your losses when the insured event occurs. Bad faith means that the insurance company has not honored its end of the contract. It is not simply a coverage dispute, but a willful attempt to override a claim made in good faith by you, the policyholder.

Bad faith tactics take many forms such as:

• Denying a valid claim for an invalid reason
• Unreasonable delay in paying a claim
• Denying a claim without even investigating
• Lowballing the claim or paying only partial benefits
• Using biased investigators, medical staff or other parties to decide claims in favor of the insurer

Bad faith litigation involves taking the insurance company to court, when necessary, to compel the insurance company to act legally and in accord with the laws of California and the language of the policy it issued. Many bad faith actions are initiated by government agencies such as a state’s Attorney General Office or Department of Insurance. There will often be a pattern of denying certain types of claims or using the same bad faith tactics across the board.