What Can I Do if the Defendant’s Car Insurance Will Not Make Any Contact With My Solicitor?
Posted by | Posted in Bad Credits | Posted on 19-10-2011
If you’ve been involved in a car accident, you’ll need to open a dialogue with the other party’s insurer. When the other party is at fault, however, the insurance company may be reluctant to respond to your inquiries or claims. You may need to take legal action in order to get the at-fault party’s insurer’s attention. Insurers are subject to laws regarding claim settlement and thus typically respond to reminders of their duty.
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Insurance companies don’t always want to respond to claims; particularly when their clients are at fault and they may be required to make a financial payout. The first step is to have your solicitor contact an insurer by phone. It’s helpful to have the name of a specific claims adjustor to address. Your lawyer should document any phone calls; their dates and times; whether and when the lawyer leaves messages; and whether the insurer responds.
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Next, the lawyer moves to written correspondence and may issue a demand letter to which an insurer is legally obligated to respond. If the insurer refuses to respond to phone calls or written correspondence, particularly a demand letter, your lawyer can send a bad faith letter. This should clearly state your demand and should document the way in which the insurer is operating in bad faith. Highlight the refusal to respond to attempts to communicate and resolve the claim.
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Each state has its own set of laws governing bad faith and an insurer’s duty to respond, so consult your lawyer for specifics in your state. If the defendant’s insurer fails to respond to a bad faith letter, you can file a lawsuit for the car accident and add charges against the defendant’s insurer for the bad faith exhibited in the failure to respond. Defendants in a lawsuit have a limited amount of time to respond, after which you can move for summary judgment.
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Most states have laws that entitle plaintiffs to punitive damages against the insurer in a bad faith claim. If the insurer fails to respond to a properly served demand letter, you may be entitled to additional damages, in some cases totaling up to millions of dollars. Most states restrict punitive damages to a set ratio to actual damages, such as two or three times the actual damages. Talk with your solicitor to determine punitive damages in your state.
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