As a consumer, when you purchase insurance and pay your premiums, you expect the insurance company to provide you protection. You purchase insurance to protect your personal or business assets, but insurance companies are in business for making profits and can be motivated to deny even valid claims.

When your insurance company denies a valid claim, acts in bad faith and fails to provide you with the coverage you have paid for, you need the help of Denver insurance bad faith attorneys like Murray & Damschen, P.C., to fight back and take on the insurance company.

Breach of Fiduciary Duty Cases

An insurance company is required to pay reasonable claims for problems caused by construction defects that are covered under your insurance policy. Unfortunately, the priority of the insurance company is the financial interests of its shareholders. Denying policyholders' valid claims is not only an insurance bad faith, but also a breach of fiduciary duty owed by an insurance company to its policyholders. We have years of experience making sure that your insurance company acts in good faith and pays reasonable insurance claims.

Ask Our Insurance Claim Attorneys: What Is Bad Faith?

Insurance companies in Colorado are required by law to act in good faith. For example, an insurer must:

  • Adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt investigation of claims
  • Promptly investigate your claim
  • Not misrepresent facts or insurance policy provisions relating to coverages at issue
  • Attempt in good faith to promptly and fairly settle claims when liability has become reasonably clear
  • Communicate with you regularly regarding the status of your claim
  • Promptly pay you any undisputed portion of your claim
  • Provide you a prompt and reasonable explanation of any claim denial or offer of settlement
  • Not fail to promptly settle claims under one portion of an insurance policy to influence settlements under other portions of the insurance policy

If your insurer has failed or refused to do any of these things, it may have acted in bad faith.

What Kind of Claims Do You Have?

If your insurance company has not acted in good faith under Colorado law, you may have claims for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. A breach of fiduciary duty arises when your insurance company assumes responsibility to act for your benefit regarding purchasing or obtaining insurance coverage and fails to act in good faith for your benefit. In some circumstances, you may also have claims for negligence and violations of the Colorado Consumer Protection Act.

What Can You Recover?

The initial goal is to get your insurer to pay the claim it has wrongly denied. If an insurance company has acted in bad faith, as a consumer you may also be eligible for up to three times the amount of insurance benefits owed to you in addition to interest on those benefits, attorney fees and costs of filing a lawsuit against the insurance company. In some cases, you may even be entitled to damages designed to punish the insurance company for its wrongful behavior.

Taking on a big insurance company can seem like an overwhelming task; at Murray & Damschen, P.C., we know how difficult these cases can be. We help clients throughout Colorado file claims related to insurance bad faith.

Insurance Coverage Disputes Lawyers: We Can Help

You often purchase insurance coverage to protect you from the claims of others. When a claim is made against you, your insurer may be obligated to hire an attorney to defend you. When an incident occurs and your insurance company refuses coverage, it may also violate its obligation to provide you a defense. On other occasions, the insurance company may provide a defense under a "reservation of rights." This means the company has delayed a decision on whether it is going to provide coverage for the claim. Even when your insurer provides a defense, you may need an attorney on your side to encourage the insurer to protect your rights. Contact the Lakewood denied insurance claim lawyers at Murray & Damschen, P.C., if your insurer has refused to defend you, or if it is not settling a claim brought against you.