Kansas City Insurance Dispute Attorneys
When you’ve been in an accident, one of the first calls you will make is to your insurance company. Despite the fact that everyone hopes to never have to use their policies, most people invest a sizable portion of their budgets into maintaining car, home, health, and/or life insurance just in case the worst does happen. What do you do when calamity hits, but your claim is denied?
As insurance dispute attorneys, we see this scenario more often than we would like. Individuals, couples, and families walk into our office that have been through tragic accidents, or who have accumulated an enormous debt to the hospital, but the insurance company refuses to pay all or part of their claims. If you find yourself in this situation, rest assured that you have recourse. At the Popham Law Firm, we specialize in helping individuals throughout the Kansas City area get the coverage they pay for and stay out of unnecessary debt so they can concentrate on what’s most important – recovery.
Types of Insurance Disputes
There are many types of disputes that may arise between an individual and his insurance company. The company may deny your claim completely, perhaps because of a dispute about a gray area in your policy or perhaps in bad faith. They may also offer you a settlement far below what you deserve and which leaves you still covering a large part of the bill. Whatever the issue, our insurance attorneys can help by . . .
- Providing an experienced legal interpretation of your coverage
Sometimes, parts of your policy may be open to interpretation. If you are interpreting it one way, but your insurance company is interpreting it another, it’s time to hire an attorney to see which interpretation is best supported by law and legal precedent. Sometimes, your insurance company may be trying to find a loophole. At the Popham Law Firm, we can see if their hole is actually just a deep pit and if their claim doesn’t hold up, we can take steps to correct the wrong.
- Talking to your insurance company on your behalf
Sometimes, all it takes is a call from an attorney to set things right. If they see that you are willing to fight for your claim, it often escalates the issue to a high enough level for things to get resolved. Other times, it takes a legal expert to talk to another legal expert. Remember that the insurance companies have lawyers too – hiring an attorney makes you an equal match.
- Providing advice about whether or not to accept a settlement or fight the company
Sometimes a less than favorable settlement is the best settlement you can expect; other times, it’s simply unfair and should be fought until you get what is just. But there are a lot of legal issues that factor into both of these and telling the difference can be difficult. We can advise you as to your best option.
- Putting your complaints and/or accusations in writing
Using precise, legal language, we can help you lodge a complaint with your insurance company that may motivate them to action. If it does not, it will still lay a sound legal groundwork for a future court case, if necessary.
- Taking the insurance company to court
Some attorneys are reticent to go up against the large insurance companies in court, but those people don’t work in our office. If you’ve been wronged, we’ll take any insurance company to task, and have a long history of litigation success. Our clients have repeatedly been awarded damages for their claims and been better off because we were there beside them.
Unfair Settlement v. Bad Faith
One common source of confusion we see among our clients is mixing up an unfair settlement with bad faith. While both may result in a claim denial, these are two very different things that should be approached in different ways.
In an unfair settlement, the insurance company may be trying to push an interpretation of your coverage or events that isn’t quite true or offering you a payment that’s far too low. It may be politics or it may be a legal gray area. But these problems can often be resolved through non-litigative means, although the issues may end up in court.
Bad faith, on the other hand, involves something patently illegal – the adjuster lied, the company committed fraud, an agent tampered with evidence or exerted influence on a witness, etc. These types of claims are far more serious and often end up in court.
An Insurance Dispute Attorney That Is There For You
At the Popham Law Firm, we have decades of combined experience handling insurance disputes, including defending your claim in court. Our long history of wins speaks for our expert strategy and our commitment to seeing justice done in your case.
You matter.
We believe the best legal outcomes happen when lawyers commit to clients, not just results. We’re dedicated to exceeding your expectations in every way— from the way we treat you to the size of your settlement.