Individuals and Businesses alike insure a range of risks through a range of insurers and intermediaries however it is important to remember that insurance companies are corporate entities and their ultimate goal is to maximise profits.
Consequently insurers will often use a range of tactics to avoid satisfying claims at all or to reduce the value of the claim. Insurers often rely on technicalities in insurance contracts and the arguments put forward by insurers to avoid claims can often appear convincing to non lawyers. It is important to remember that there are important legal principles and legislation in place to protect consumers, meaning that through law, insurance disputes, can be easily won.
Statistics in recent years have indicated that it is increasingly common since the recession for insurers to seek to avoid insurance policies and data released by the British Insurance Brokers Association have suggested that 90% of their members believed that Insurers have become much stricter about settling claims – leading to more disputes.
Our Insurance Litigation Team can assist in Insurance Disputes arising of any insurance contract including:
- Household Insurance including claims for flood damage
- Landlord Insurance
- Motor Insurance
- Critical Illness Cover
- Life Insurance
- Payment Protection Insurance
- Business Insurance
Our Commercial and Civil Litigation Lawyers can assist in negotiating settlement of all disputes and claims or litigating claims which insurers refuse to satisfy.
Insurance companies will often instruct Loss Adjustors to assess loss and damage on behalf of the insurers. It is important to remember however that the Loss Adjustor is instructed and paid for by the insurer. Insurers will often have panel or preferred Loss Adjustors who, whilst technically impartial, often have overriding business interests with an insurer.
Therefore it is important in larger value insurance claims that you instruct a firm to represent your interests and process the dispute on your behalf. Traditionally a policyholder may elect to instruct their own Loss Adjustor however there can be advantages in instructing a firm of Solicitors from the outset as an alternative to a Loss Adjustor.
As lawyers we are trained at collating evidence for presentation to Courts and Tribunals. We can therefore prepare your case from the outset as if the matter will be presented to a court of Tribunal. We can also advise on the legal technicalities arising in the event that a dispute arises as to whether there has been a breach of the policy. As experts in ‘Bad Faith’ Insurance Claims (claims where insurers are refusing to pay anything towards to the Claim) we can obtain appropriate evidence from the outset in order to strengthen your position.
By instructing a Loss Adjustor, it may be the case that you still need to instruct a firm of Solicitors in order to litigate an action in future if settlement cannot be agreed and this can lead to duplicate work being undertaken by the Loss Adjustor and Solicitor.
Contact Us
If you are interested in understanding how WRJ Solicitors can help you with your Commercial Litigation, call us on 01926 258182 or contact us online and we’ll come back to you as soon as possible.