Hailstorms Give Rise to Bad Faith Claims

Posted February 6, 2017

Mother nature is highly unpredictable, making it very difficult to plan for damages and emergencies caused at her expense. Oklahoma is known for having severe hailstorms that wreak havoc on homes, businesses, and cars. Fortunately, insurance carries throughout Oklahoma offer hail damage coverage. Unfortunately for them, hailstorms are difficult to predict, causing them to lose money when hail does strike.

According one of Oklahoma’s leading news sources, State Farm reported 33,790 hailstorm claims in 2013, while 2014 only saw 8,089. 2014’s low numbers made up for the surge in claims in 2013.

According to State Farm, hail is the most frequent cause of property damage in Oklahoma. As a result, Oklahoma homeowners are loath to not carry hail damage coverage. However, because hailstorms are so unpredictable, there are years where they simply do not need it. Those are the years that the insurance providers bet on.

And for the years that there is a significant number of hailstorm damage claims? Most insurance carriers have money put aside from those years when homeowners were paying for coverage but did not need it.

Oklahoma insurance providers have a duty to investigate and pay claims as soon as possible. If an insurance carrier does not have the money to pay out massive amounts of hail damage claims during the bad storm years, they are still responsible to fulfill their duty. However, many insurance companies, because they did not plan ahead, will try to avoid paying policyholders, or make up reasons for denying a claim. This is considered insurance bad faith.

When insurance bad faith cases arise with unpaid or underpaid hail damage claims (as they often do), bad faith lawyers are called in to advocate on the insured’s behalf. If the insurance company is found guilty of bad faith, they may be liable to pay the insured’s attorney fees, as well as the claim money owed to them. However, bad faith cases take a long time to settle and require extensive amounts of evidence to prove that bad faith did actually occur.

Consult With an Oklahoma Insurance Bad Faith Attorney

If your insurance company denied you the hail damage coverage you paid for, or if they underpaid you for your damages, it may be worth it for you to fight the decision. The insurance bad faith lawyers at The Bennett Law Firm works as advocates for victims of insurance bad faith, and will help you build your case so that you can recover the money that is rightfully yours. To schedule your free consultation with their team today, call 405-272-0303, or contact them online.