While businesses usually focus their concern on property damage caused by fire, vandalism, storms, and other causes or incidents giving rise to liability claims, associated periods of business interruption can be just as costly if not even worse. Insurance companies will frequently impose more substantial burdens and engage in sharper tactics when processing commercial claims. The justification for this disparity in treatment is that businesses are expected to be savvier than an individual policyholder.
Although the property damage portion of a commercial claim might not differ substantially from that of an individual homeowner, the insurance company often attempts to have a business shoulder much of the work in investigating the nature of the loss and estimating the value of the claim. This investigation might entail hiring experts and/or gathering relevant information. This approach can be improper given that insurance carriers have a non-delegable duty to investigate the claim in good faith and pay the claim.
When a business encounters property loss or damage caused by a fire or other hazard, the business will often suffer a temporary downturn in generating income while the loss is addressed before the company can resume normal operations. Meticulous business records can prove invaluable to enable the business to substantiate the value of this aspect of the claim. However, commercial carriers often exploit this legitimate aspect of documenting a claim as a way to create grief for the business.
There are situations where proving lost revenue can be especially difficult. When the business is fairly new and lacks an established pattern of income or the revenue fluctuates at various points in time in the year, the insurance company often will attempt to exploit a paucity in evidence to mitigate liability to pay business interruption losses. Companies facing these types of challenges can significantly improve their prospect of quantifying lost profits by using information and documents like inventory movement, contracts, sales trends, orders, and similar financial data.
When insurance companies identify unusual circumstances or evidence a company was in financial trouble, the insurer will often treat this information as a red flag to justify a fraud investigation. Insurers routinely scrutinize evidence closely that might be used as fodder supporting allegations of fraud or misrepresentation involving the claim. When a business faces these types of specious allegations, the company might have a valid claim for insurance bad faith. The high stakes involved when a commercial insurance company relies on this strategy for refusing to pay a claim will make the claims dispute extremely contentious.
You can reach Miami Insurance Claims Lawyer J.P. Gonzalez-Sirgo by dialing his direct number at (786) 272-5841, calling the main office at (305) 461-1095, or Toll Free at 1 (866) 71-CLAIM or email Attorney Gonzalez-Sirgo directly at [email protected].
