Insurance Bad Faith Attorneys in Wichita

Because You Shouldn’t Suffer for an Insurance Company’s Mistakes

At Brian and Brian at Pistotnik Law, we understand how insurance companies operate—and how they may be involved in wrongdoing. Insurance companies make a lot of money by offering to protect you when you are in a car wreck. They owe contractual duties to act in good faith when dealing with claims. In Kansas, those duties extend to the named insured, but not to the injury victim making a claim against the insured. If you believe you are dealing with an insurance company acting in bad faith, our Wichita insurance bad faith lawyers are here to help. We can fight to protect your rights and best interests, striving to obtain the compensation you deserve.

What Is Insurance Bad Faith?

Insurance bad faith is a legal term describing a claim an insured individual has against an insurance company that has behaved in an unfair or unjust manner. This often occurs when insurance companies put their own interests over those of their policyholders. If an insurance company fails in their contractual duties to negotiate reasonably and to take affirmative action to make effective attempts to protect the insured, they can be found to have acted in bad faith.

An insurance company may have acted in bad faith if it:

• Denies your claim for reasons not included in your policy
• Disregards your policyholder rights
• Fails to process your claim(s) in time
• Offers you an unreasonably low settlement

When determining how to protect the insured, insurance companies should consider the strength of the injury victim’s case on issues of fault and damages as well as:

• Properly investigate the circumstances to ascertain the evidence against the insured
• Inform the insured of a compromise offer
• Consider the amount of financial risk to which each party is exposed in the event of a refusal to settle
• Attempt to induce the insured to contribute to a settlement

Unfortunately, insurance companies sometimes disregard their duties in order to trick victims into accepting inadequate compensation.

If You Can’t Trust Your Insurance Company, Trust Us

In the event a judgment is obtained by the injury victim wherein the value is higher than the amount of insurance coverage, the insured (the person who was sued) has a claim against their own insurance company to pay for the excess judgment (the amount of money beyond the insurance coverage that was awarded). The injury victim can offer an assignment of the bad faith claim to try and recover the full award rather than just the amount of insurance coverage or can garnish the insurance company for the full amount under certain circumstances.

Bad faith claims are extremely important when the value of the injured person’s damages exceeds the available insurance. These cases allow for a full recovery of damages when the insurance company was negligent in handling the claim.

Our insurance bad faith attorneys at Brian and Brian at Pistotnik Law handle cases in the following Kansas cities and communities: Wichita, Andover, El Dorado, Topeka, Bel Aire, Clearwater, Manhattan, Syracuse, and the surrounding areas.