Columbia bad faith lawyers protect individuals who have purchased insurance policies and whose insurance companies are failing to abide by the terms of the policy. An insurance policy is a contract between an individual and an insurance company that specifies the terms under which the insurance company will pay for damages incurred by the policy holder. If the insurance company fails to honor its commitment or acts in bad faith with regard to a policy holder’s claim then the policy holder may be able to recover damages in a lawsuit against the insurance company. The experienced South Carolina bad faith lawyers of Goodwyn Law Firm, represent insurance policy holders in insurance company litigation cases.
How Columbia Bad Faith Lawyers Can Help You
South Carolina bad faith attorneys can represent you in a lawsuit against your insurance company if your insurance company has acted in bad faith and caused you harm. The South Carolina statute of limitations provides you with two years to bring an insurance company bad faith lawsuit.
Insurance company bad faith is a tort and, as in other torts, a successful plaintiff must provide that the defendant:
- Owed you a duty of care. South Carolina courts have found that insurance companies have a duty to their policyholders;
- Breached its duty of care by failing to act as a reasonable insurance company would act given the circumstances. Specifically, the insurance company must have intentionally denied, failed to process or failed to pay a claim without a reasonable basis for doing so;
- The breach of the duty of care must have caused you harm which would not have occurred but for the breach of the duty of care; and
- You are entitled to damages as a matter of law.
Columbia courts have found that insurance bad faith is a tort that is different from breach of an insurance contract. Therefore, a person who has been harmed by insurance bad faith is entitled to all damages which are the proximate result of the insurance company’s bad faith including loss of insurance proceeds, attorney’s fees and in extreme cases punitive damages.