Understanding how an insurance claim is handled by an insurance company is extremely important in potentially resolving your claim in a timely and successful manner. Our recent experience working in-house for a large commercial insurance company allows us to have full perspective on the insurance company’s likely strategies in handling your specific claim as well as potential paths to consider obtaining an early resolution of your claim dispute. There are many facets to consider when reviewing a claim, such as the following:

How was your claim underwritten? What inspection occurred at your property prior to the binding of coverage? Did an inspection occur at renewal? Did an inspection occur following any prior losses? It is important to consider these questions and view them from the perspective of an insurance company. This may shed some light on how your claim is being handled or why your claim is being delayed. If the insurance company made an error during its underwriting process, it is crucial to identify the error and draw the insurance company’s attention to the mistake. By doing this, we can often obtain an early resolution as the insurance company may realize that the weakness in the underwriting file is fatal to their defense of a lawsuit.

How many staff adjusters have been assigned to your claim? Has your claim been transferred? Has the staff adjuster responded to each of your communications within fourteen (14) days? Has the staff adjuster provided a coverage decision on your claim within ninety (90) days of its opening or re-opening? These are just a few of the questions to ask regarding the adjustment process. Insurance companies are generally overwhelmed and understaffed, however, their staffing issues are not an excuse to ignore or underpay your insurance claim. Depending on the jurisdiction, a series of statutes and regulations govern the conduct of insurance companies and their adjusters throughout the claims handling process. Having an in-depth understanding of those statutes and regulations allows us to act quickly when a violation occurs. Once the insurance company is made aware of its improper handling, we can allege bad faith practices and potentially resolve your claim more quickly than if you handle the claim yourself.

Has the insurance company inspected your property with an engineer, contractor, building consultant or other expert retained by the insurance company? Please know that this is generally for their benefit and not for yours. Insurance companies have relationships with contractors, engineers, building consultants and other companies and experts who generally will find in favor of whatever position is most favorable to the insurance company. It is important to have independent parties inspecting your claim. Kennedy Insurance Law has a network of trusted, local contractors who will provide actual bids to replace your damaged property. We can also facilitate your retaining of experts to provide independent evaluations of your property so that you have a true second opinion on the damage, the cause of that damage, and whether that damage is able to be claimed as part of your insurance claim.