Over the years, numerous policyholders have made complaints regarding how their insurance companies make it extremely difficult for them to receive their benefits. For the most part, these have just been complaints, and people take no action. But for The Harford insurance company, that’s no longer the case. The insurance firm now faces a class action suit that represents almost 20,000 California policyholders. The suit claims that the firm usually pays less for damaged property claims.
Details of the Civil Suit
The class action suit started out in 2015, when a complaint was filed a San Francisco building was damaged in a fire. The plaintiff in the complaint noted that the insurance firm gave low estimates on the costs of various items covered in the insurance policy. These items included the plumbing, insulation, baseboards, and drywall. Even the costs of the marble and the ornamental iron were lowballed, and the depreciation was by significant amounts.
In the examples cited in the complaint, it was noted that the replacement cost for the marble was reduced by as much as 80%, while the cost for the plumbing replacement was brought down by 42%.
The suit also alleges that the firm routinely engaged in depreciating items that shouldn’t have been subjected to these reductions. In addition, the firm also allegedly reduced their sales tax payments on the various replacement items.
In response, The Hartford sought a denial for the class certification and asked for a summary judgment. The judge for the case denied these motions, and stated that the damages must be measured by what The Hartford should have paid out, and what the firm actually paid out.
Your Legal Options if you need to Recover
If you believe that your insurance company isn’t paying what they ought to when you file a claim with them, we invite you to speak to one of our lawyers about your case. We have a lot of experience in insurance payment cases and we can help you determine what your legal options are. We can also explain to you the details and meanings of your insurance contract, so that you can fully comprehend the benefits to which you are entitled.
What you have to understand is that an insurance firm, while they can be helpful, is still a business. Some of these firms value profits above all, and maintaining their profits means that they need to minimize their payouts for claims. Some firms are responsible and pay out as they ought to. Others may not be that ethical, and they may tend to reduce their payments believing that their clients won’t complain.
Talk to us, and you may find that you’re not the only policyholder that has been lowballed by your insurance provider. With a class action suit, there’s a greater chance that even a large insurance firm can be compelled to pay up as they ought to have done in the first place.