Murray & Damschen, P.C.

Insurance Company Bad Faith

As a consumer, when you purchase insurance and pay your premiums, you expect your insurance company to provide you protection. You purchase insurance to protect your personal or business assets, but insurance companies are in business of making profits and can be motivated to deny even valid claims. When your insurance company denies a valid claim, acts in bad faith and fails to provide you with the coverage you have paid for, you need the help of attorneys like Murray & Damschen, P.C., to fight back and take on the insurance company.

What is Bad Faith?

Insurance companies in Colorado are required by law to act in good faith. For example, an insurer must:

Adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of claims;

Promptly investigate your claim;

Not misrepresent facts or insurance policy provisions relating to coverages at issue;

Attempt in good faith to promptly and fairly settle claims when liability has become reasonably clear;

Communicate with you regularly regarding the status of your claim;

Promptly pay you any undisputed portion of your claim;

Provide you a prompt and reasonable explanation of any claim denial or offer of settlement.

Not fail to promptly settle claims under one portion of an insurance policy to influence settlements under other portions of the insurance policy.

If your insurer has failed or refused to do any of these things, they may have acted in bad faith.

What kind of claims do you have?

If your insurance company has not acted on good faith under Colorado law, you may have claims for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. A breach of fiduciary duty arises when your insurance company assumes responsibility to act for your benefit regarding purchasing or obtaining insurance coverage and fails to act in good faith for your benefit. In some circumstances you may also have claims for negligence and violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

What can you recover?

The initial goal is to get your insurer to pay the claim they have wrongly denied. If an insurance company has acted in bad faith, as a consumer you may also be eligible for up to three times the amount of insurance benefits owed to you in addition to interest on those benefits, attorney fees, costs of filing a lawsuit against the insurance company. In some cases you may even be entitled to damages designed to punish the insurance company for their wrongful behavior.

Taking on a big insurance company can seem like an overwhelming task; at Murray & Damschen, P.C., we know how difficult these cases can be. We help clients throughout Colorado file claims related to insurance bad faith.

We may also be able to help when a claim or lawsuit has been filed against you.

You often purchase insurance coverage to protect you from the claims of others. When a claim is made against you, your insurer may be obligated to hire an attorney to defend you. When an incident occurs and your insurance company refuses coverage, it may also violate its obligation to provide you a defense. On other occasions the insurance company may provide a defense under a "reservation of rights." This means the company has delay a decision on whether it is going to provide coverage for the claim. Even when your insurer provides a defense, you may need an attorney on your side to encourage the insurer to protect your rights. Contact Murray & Damschen, P.C., if your insurer has refused to defend you, or if they are not settling a claim brought against you.

Murray & Damschen, P.C.
1536 Cole Blvd., Suite 335
Lakewood, CO 80401
Phone: (303) 274-7752
Facsimile: (303) 274-7942

The Law Offices of Murray & Damschen, a Professional Corporation represents clients throughout the state of Colorado, serving the people of Adams County, Denver County, Douglas County, Jefferson County, El Paso County, Weld County, Grand County, Larimer County, Summit County, and Arapahoe County. We work in Denver metro area communities such as Golden, Evergreen, Erie, Frederick, Dacono, Boulder, Aurora, Superior, Brighton, Arvada, Thornton, Lonetree, and Centennial.