Birmingham Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer

Birmingham Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer

When faced with allegations of bad faith, insurers once only had to worry about damages specified in the insurance contract. However, plaintiffs can now pursue punitive damages or damages for emotional distress that exceed the stated limit of first-party or third-party insurance policies. These extra-contractual damages are awarded in bad faith litigation to punish those cases of willful insurer misconduct. Defending insurance companies against bad faith claims and these extra-contractual damages has become more challenging as adverse legal decisions and new plaintiff’s counsel tactics emerge.

The insurance defense lawyers of Christian & Small help insurance carriers and their professionals analyze and understand all of the legal and business issues involved in processing insurance claims. We know that extra-contractual damage awards usually arise from certain claims handling practices and train our clients to properly process claims, draft denial letters and identify any red flags or warning signs of impending litigation. Our attorneys have experience working with different insurance lines like car insurance, life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, property insurance, homeowners insurance and directors and officers (D&O) insurance.

When an insured or beneficiary files a bad faith complaint, we aggressively defend the insurance company against the claim, prepared for trial but always working toward a prompt and less costly resolution. We have represented national and regional insurance carriers against some of the following insurance coverage bad faith claims:

• First-party bad faith
• Third-party bad faith
• Statutory bad faith
• Unfair claims settlements
• Institutional bad faith
• Comparative bad faith
• Reverse bad faith