Each year, active and former armed service members and their families rely on the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) to meet their insurance, banking and investment needs.
The San Antonio-based business began selling policies to military members in 1922.
USAA deserves credit for providing insurance services for the nation's armed forces, but it cannot be forgotten that it is also a business.
Last year, the Fortune 500 ranked the company as the nation's top revenue earner. The insurer earned $30.6 billion for the first time in 2017. USAA turned a huge profit even after making record-setting payments to victims of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
USAA doesn't always enjoy that kind of success by paying out claims. Sometimes the company's refusal to pay a claim is legitimate. Unfortunately, however, there are also times when USAA should pay a claim but does not, or when its adjusters try to offer settlements that are much lower than claimants would expect.
When this type of bad practice meets certain criteria under Florida law, it can be considered "insurance bad faith" which entitles claimants to additional compensation for injuries that the failure to pay claims causes. It is made
The team at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, Clearwater, PA understands the challenges that personal injury victims face after an accident, especially when pursuing an insurance company to pay a valid claim.
The matter comes In this blog post, you will learn how bad practices on the part of USAA and other large insurers can make it unnecessarily difficult to collect on an insurance claim, and how the team at Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA can help.
For if you are in a dispute with USAA about a claim you believe they should have paid. Call us at (727) 451-6900 to find out.
What is Insurance Bad Faith?
USAA, like other insurers, has an obligation to honor the terms of the insurance policies it issues. All insurance contracts contain an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
Good faith includes the fulfillment of any contractual duties owed by insurers to their policyholders, most importantly the payment of benefits owed to their customers.
Florida law also requires insurance carriers to process their customers' claims fairly and impartially. Processing must complete the following steps:
the policyholder's proof of loss
Verify
Inspect the areawhere damage has occurred
Claims
Make
claims
Insurers their contractual responsibilities to the insured. Policyholders may be entitled to sue insurance carriers that refuse to honor the terms of an insurance contract and/or fail to comply with statutory obligations in processing insurance claims.
An insurance carrier that acts maliciously may be held liable for damages that may exceed the limits of the policy, including:
Statutory penalties
for legal judgments against the insured
Consequential economic penalties suffered by
liabilityDamages
Accumulated Interest
Attorneys' Fees.
Florida motorists
USAA sue forUSAA was sued after the practice of improperly reimbursing customers for
Attorneys sued in 2013 on behalf of customers over insurance policies written by USAA for Florida residents from October 2008 and October 2016, alleging the company withheld sales tax when it issued settlement checks to policyholders to purchase new vehicles.
had acted in bad faith. , The suit said USAA withheld the tax until members paid the fee in accordance with its policy, but later failed to reimburse the full sales tax to 70 percent of policyholders entitled to reimbursement.
Under the settlement, USAA's Florida auto policy customers will now receive 100 percent of their total vehicle value, plus 8 percent interest.
USAA also agreed to rewrite the terms of its insurance policies for Florida residents so that they no longer have to wait for sales tax reimbursements, but instead receive payments in connection with their claim payments. USAA did not admit fault in the case.
What is a first-party bad faith claim?
Florida law recognizes two categories of insurance bad faith claims: first-party and third-party.
First-party bad faith claims are legal actions that customers take against their own insurance companies.
Policyholders sue insurers who do not make a good faith effort to pay claims.
Florida plaintiffs who believe they are victims of insurance malpractice may be subject to the state's insurance malpractice statute, which requires insurance carriers to act fairly and honestly when investigating and settling claims, regardless of the insurer's claim . Payments
At Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA, we typically represent clients in one of the following insurance malpractice scenarios:
An insurance company refuses to settle the claim. Florida law allows residents to sue insurers who do not make a good faith effort to pay legitimate claims. In the typical case, the carrier denies the claim is valid despite clear evidence.
The carrier delays in paying the settlement. Residents can also bring an insurance malpractice action when an insurer unnecessarily delays processing or paying insurance benefits.
The insurer makes payments to the policyholders without providing the details attached. The printed statement should explain the benefits provided, so that the insurance customer knows whether he has received all the benefits available under the policy.
For a free legal consultation, 866-481-5347
Our Firm's Experience With First-Party Bad Faith Claims
Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA works hard to get justice for our clients when an insurer violates the terms of an insurance contract. refuses to respect.
and/or violates Florida's Insurance Bad Faith Law. Our experienced attorneys work with the insured to resolve first-party malpractice claims.
Our firm frequently deals with first-party bad faith claims involving car accident victims.
Under Florida's "no-fault" insurance law, all drivers are required to have personal injury protection (PIP) insurance.
Regardless of the fault of the parties in a car accident, each driver has their own PIP insurance, which is the driver's primary insurance for injuries sustained in an accident. PIP insurance should be paid promptly and correctly, but this is not always the case.
An indicator of bad faith in these situations is an insurer's willful failure to adequately investigate a personal injury claim simply because of the size of the property damage claim it concerned.
That insurance companies evaluate claims based on property damage is an interview." That doesn't make sense.
They'll probably look at a property damage claim of $500 to $700, and decide that it's impossible that my client could have been hurt." He continued, "Yet, they don't hire a biomechanical expert, nor do they They hire or retain a physician to determine how serious or significant an injury is, or whether it is a permanent impairment."
Dolman explained that insurance adjusters are laypeople who often have a history of claimants' injuries.
They lack the medical expertise to make assessments, and so they rely on imprecise indicators of property damage to guide their assessment of a personal injury claim.
The Doleman Group has contacted USAA, Allstate, GEICO, and other insurers. This bad faith practice has been repeated in several related cases.
In one such insurance bad faith case, Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers, PA performed a lumbar fusion at a local orthopedic clinic after sustaining a spinal cord injury in a car accident.
Has undergone surgery. The insurance company opposed the claim arguing that stated that the victim's injuries were minor and offered a settlement of only $2,000.
We successfully argued that our client suffered injuries from the impact in the car accident, and won a $325,000 settlement for our client.
Third-Party Bad Faith Claims Third-Party Insurance Bad Faith Cases in the Sunshine State include
liability insurance. They arise from situations where the carrier fails to settle a third party claim against the policyholder arising from the policyholder's negligence or other covered conduct.
Florida law authorizes third parties to bring legal action when insurers engage in a variety of unfair or deceptive business practices. These
may include failure to adopt or incorporate standards for the investigation of claims.
Misrepresentation of factual information regarding policy provisions.
Refusal to promptly act on or acknowledge communications regarding claims.
Rejecting claims without proper investigation on the basis of available data.
In a common third-party bad faith scenario, the insurer has the opportunity to settle the third-party claim against its policyholder for the policy limit, but declines.
If the judgment wins for the excess , then the policyholder is on the hook for the remainder.
If abandoned, the policyholder may have an insurance bad faith claim against the insurer for refusing to settle for the policy limits of a third party.
In another common scenario, a third party who sues a policyholder for injury resulting from the policyholder's negligence or other covered conduct may have a claim against the insurer for bad faith failure to make or pay a claim. (Similar to the scenario of the first-party coverage case described above).
Florida third-party insurance bad faith claimants must choose either a statutory or common law remedy when bringing a claim against an insurer.
They cannot pursue both types of losses at the same time. Statutory claims cover most third-party claims.
Insurance malpractice litigants who opt for statutory remedies the Florida Department of Financial Services have 60 days from receipt of notice to address the violations before an insurer can initiate action against a malpractice claim toCommon law third party lawsuits do not require a civil remedy notice.
Our firm helps litigants win their third-party bad faith claims.
Our firm has achieved successful results against major insurers such as USAA. In 2016, a father and son quit their jobs at a Broward shopping mall and moved home.
While they were waiting at a red light, a large pickup truck rammed into the rear of their SUV. The vehicles have suffered heavy damage due to the forceful collision.
When the father left his SUV, he saw bruises on his knees. He could not walk and was worried that he had broken his legs in the accident. An ambulance arrived and took her to Memorial Hospital West.
Emergency room doctors found no broken bones. Still the patient complained of back pain.
His son did not receive immediate medical care, but he had neck pain. He left the hospital. The pair later sought follow-up care at a spine specialist's office. Doctors discovered that the father had a herniated disc in his lower back. His son had a bulging disc in his neck.
Both men received medicines and injections to relieve their pain. Although the son's pain subsided, the treatment did not help his father, who needed surgery.
Dolman Law Group accident injury attorneys, PA sought coverage of the family's losses from the insurer of the responsible party.
Our law firm filed suit after the party and its insurer ignored our demands. After some pre-trial maneuvering, we were able to persuade the insurer to settle. The father received a settlement of $650,000. His son received $125,000.
Damages Claimants Can Receive in Insurance Bad Faith Cases
Florida allows successful plaintiffs to collect damages in insurance bad faith cases. Plaintiffs can collect statutory, pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages due to the insurer's failure to comply with its obligations to policyholders and beneficiaries.
Those damages may also include damages for emotional or psychological suffering resulting from the insurer's malfeasance, if the claimant can prove that
the
failure aggravated the insured's medical or psychological conditions.
She was emotionally disturbed due to the deteriorating condition of the victim.
Trust the Dolman Law Group accident injury lawyers, PA to handle your Clearwater USAA insurance bad faith claim
. Has USAA refused to pay your claim? Call the professionals of Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Lawyers in Clearwater, PA.
Our experienced insurance attorneys know how to fight to get paid for a USAA insurance claim settlement. Contact us or call (727) 451-6900.
Dolman Law Group Accident Injury Attorneys, PA
800 North Belcher Road
Clearwater, FL 33765
(727) 451-6900