Practice Areas
What is Insurance Fraud?
What Is Bad Faith?
Under Alabama law, every insurance contract has a “covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” This means that your insurance company is required to act in good faith and to treat you fairly when deciding whether to pay a claim. Unfortunately, for the sake of profits, some insurance companies breach the duty it owes to its customers.
Insurance companies that commit bad faith are committing insurance fraud and need to be held accountable for their actions. Insurance companies may deny some of the benefits that are due under their policies, they may refuse to pay certain claims, they may unreasonably delay paying claims, or they may suppress material information regarding available coverage.
If you own a business and get sued, your insurance company may be obligated to provide you with a defense to the claims made against you and/or to provide indemnification coverage for the damages related to those claims. A similar situation may arise if you are in a car accident and sued as a result.
In cases where “coverage” is questionable, the insurer may still owe you a duty to provide a defense to certain claims. Under Alabama law, the insurance companies’ duty to provide a defense to its insureds is much greater than its duty to indemnify. Nevertheless, to save money, some insurance companies elect to refuse to provide a defense to their insureds without appropriate legal justification. These unscrupulous tactics may be actionable under Alabama law.
The insurance fraud attorneys at Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C. have successfully represented many individuals and insureds throughout Alabama, who have been harmed by insurance companies that committed bad faith / insurance fraud.
What Should I Do If I Think My Insurance Company Has Wrongfully Denied My Claim Or Withheld Certain Benefits?
What Is Insurance Fraud?
Under Alabama, law there are several types of actionable fraudulent conduct, including Fraudulent Misrepresentation, Suppression, Promissory Fraud, and Deceit.
Generally speaking, a defendant company is guilty of fraudulent misrepresentation if it makes misrepresentation of material fact, which causes the plaintiff to act to his or her detriment. Suppression is based on the defendant withholding material information that the defendant owes a duty to disclose to the plaintiff. Promissory fraud involves the promise to do some act in the future with the knowledge that the act cannot or will not be completed.
Insurance companies and various other businesses may engage in fraudulent conduct. Under Alabama law, you may be entitled to recover monetary damages if another person or business has misrepresented material information to you and you relied on this information to your detriment.
Under certain circumstances, the person or business that you are dealing with may have the duty to truthfully convey material information. If material information is suppressed or hidden from you, you may be able recover damages for their fraudulent conduct.
In addition, under some circumstances, the jury may award punitive damages to punish the defendant and to prevent others who are similarly situated from engaging in similar wrongful acts.
