FAQs For Tampa Bay Insurance Claim Disputes
And Bad Faith Claims Lawyers
Hancock & Hancock, P.A.
Michael and Claire Hancock
- Why won’t the insurance adjuster just pay me? Why is making an insurance claim so difficult?
- If I think that an insurance adjuster is acting in bad faith, what can I do?
- How much does a lawyer cost?
Why won’t the insurance adjuster just pay me? Why is making an insurance claim so difficult?
No matter how sympathetic they may seem, adjusters who work for insurance companies have only one goal in mind when they offer to settle your case. It is their job to settle your insurance claim with paying you the least amount of money possible. Insurance companies are businesses. The goal of insurance companies is to take your premiums/money in - not to pay claims/money out. Also, by delaying claims or otherwise creating an insurance claim dispute, insurance companies are able to hold on to money a little longer – money that is invested somewhere earning them money.
If I think that an insurance adjuster is acting in bad faith, what can I do?
Document, document, document! Create a file folder for your insurance claim – you will have a lot of documents and notes by the time the claim is completed, so it is important to stay organized and have a place to put things. Such evidence might also be necessary to prove your case in court. Whenever you are speaking on the phone with any adjuster, write down his/her name, address, phone number, date of the conversation and generally what you are told. Follow up your phone conversation with a letter, e-mail message or fax to the adjuster setting out your understanding of the phone conversation. Keep a copy for yourself. If you feel it is very important, consider sending your letter by registered mail, return receipt requested. If documents are requested from you, make sure you keep your originals, send only a copy, and include a dated cover letter to the adjuster setting out a list of those documents or things that you are providing. Of course keep a copy of this cover letter also. Adjusters create a claim file, you should also do the same for yourself.
The accident attorneys at Hancock & Hancock take cases on a contingency fee contract approved by The Florida Supreme Court. This means that our clients do not pay at the beginning of the case - payment to us is contingent on us recovering money for you. At the end of the case, either when your case is settled prior to trial or after a jury verdict, you pay a percentage of the money you receive, in addition to court costs advanced my us. If there is no money recovered for you, you do not pay attorney’s fees or costs.
The percentage of attorney’s fees depends on at what point your recovery occurs. Our contingency fee contract provides for 33 1/3% of the recovery prior to the filing of the lawsuit, what is referred to as “pre-suit” or “pre-litigation,” up through the time that an answer to the lawsuit is filed by the defendant, in addition to the recovery of court costs advanced by the firm. If the case has not settled prior to this point, then the percentage increases to 40% of the recovery, through the end of trial, in addition to the recovery of court costs advanced.
Examples of court costs which our firm advances on your behalf include the following: court filing fees (filing fees are required by a court before it will accept legal papers); expert fees (experts and consultants charge for their time in evaluating cases and testifying in court and depositions, sometimes thousands of dollars); fees to obtain medical records; postage; deposition costs (certified court reporters charge for taking down testimony at depositions and providing written transcripts of testimony), etc. We are proud of our firm philosophy to keep your advanced costs down to a minimum, so as to maximize your recovery. We will not “nickel-and-dime” you with such charges as long-distance telephone costs, costs for sending a fax or a “file set-up fee,” for which some firm charge hundreds of dollars.
