Bad Faith Claims

In Texas, insurance companies are required by law to act in good faith in dealing with coverage issues and claims of their policy holders. Unfortunately, insurance companies often adopt an adversarial position in denying valid claims for no good reason.

The Texas Insurance Code Section 541 defines many practices which constitute unfair or deceptive acts, including:

• Misrepresenting to a claimant a material fact or policy provision relating to coverage at issue;
• Failing to attempt in good faith to effectuate a prompt, fair, and equitable settlement of a claim with respect to which the insurer's liability has become reasonably clear;
• Failing to attempt, in good faith, to effectuate a prompt, fair, and equitable settlement under one portion of a policy of a claim with respect to which the insurer's liability has become reasonably clear in order to influence the claimant to settle an additional claim under another portion of the coverage, provided that this prohibition does not apply if payment under one portion of the coverage constitutes evidence of liability under another portion of the policy;
• Failing to provide promptly to a policy holder a reasonable explanation of the basis in the policy, in relation to the facts or applicable law, for the insurer's denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement of a claim;
• Failing within reasonable time to:
  • Affirm or deny coverage of a claim to a policy holder; or
  • Submit a reservation of rights to a policyholder;
• Refusing, failing or unreasonably delaying an offer of settlement under applicable first-party coverage on the basis that other coverage may be available or that third parties are responsible for the damages suffered, except as may be specifically provided in the policy;
• Undertaking to enforce a full and final release of a claim from a policy holder when only a partial payment has been made, provided that this prohibition does not apply to a compromise settlement of a doubtful or disputed claim;
• Refusing to pay a claim without conducting a reasonable investigation with respect to the claim;

Our attorneys, led by Dax Faubus, have the experience to aggressively pursue your case against large insurance companies. When you need a lawyer to fight a large insurance company, you need The Faubus Firm.