Here is another example of an insurer’s bad conduct towards one of its own policyholders. In this case, American Family Mutual Insurance failed to pay $125,000 in lost wages to a Univ of Colorado professor. A jury awarded him almost $3,000,000 which includes punitive damages, interest, and attorneys fees.
The smoking gun here: a business plan that called for a reduction of claim payments by 28 percent. Insurance companies are trying to make money. But they are going about it the wrong way. They are trying to avoid paying money they owe.
Here is a new idea: pay what you owe when you owe it and you will stop being sued for bad faith. Seriously, if they would start handling claims properly, they would not be sued for bad faith and they would save millions of dollars per year. I still don’t understand why they won’t do this, but maybe one of these verdicts will get their attention.