What If My Truck Accident Claim Was Denied By Allstate?
You have several options if Allstate denies your truck accident claim. You do not have to give up without a fight. There are things you can do to challenge Allstate if it wrongfully denied your legitimate truck accident claim.
Sometimes, a claims adjuster will “play hardball” just to see if they can get away with it. You do not have to go without the compensation you deserve for your injuries and losses. You can challenge the denial.
What To Do If Allstate Denies Your Truck Accident Claim
You filed an accident claim after your truck accident and thought everything would go smoothly. Instead, you received a letter from Allstate denying your claim. Rather than assuming that you will have to bear all the losses of your injuries and other items yourself, you might want to consider taking these actions:
- Read the claim denial letter carefully. The claims adjuster might have made a mistake when reading the police report or other information about the collision. Pay close attention to the justification that Allstate gave for denying your claim. If it got the facts wrong, you can challenge the insurer on that. You might wish to have a personal injury attorney write the letter to the insurance company for you.
- Send Allstate a demand letter. Your lawyer can draft a demand letter that explains to Allstate the reasons why their policyholder is responsible for the accident. As the at-fault party’s insurance liability carrier, Allstate must pay covered claims against its client. The demand letter typically contains the monetary amount of your losses and how much money you would accept in settlement of your injury claim.
- Conduct negotiations with Allstate about your truck accident claim. Your personal injury attorney can negotiate directly with the insurance company to settle your truck accident claim fairly.
- Sue the driver who caused the truck collision. If Allstate refuses to pay a fair amount to settle your claim, continues to deny liability, or does not reach a settlement promptly, your injury lawyer could file a lawsuit against Allstate’s policyholder. Negotiations can continue while the lawsuit is pending.
If the insurance company acts in bad faith when processing your truck accident claim, you might be able to take additional action against them.
The Requirement Of Good Faith And Insurance Claims
As the American Bar Association (ABA) shares, liability insurance carriers have a duty to act in good faith when handling insurance claims. When an insurance company refuses to act in good faith, it can get sued for monetary damages above the amount of the personal injury claim.
You might have a bad faith claim against the insurance company if it:
- Refuses to communicate with you properly.
- Does not pay the full compensation for a covered loss.
- Provides inaccurate information about the insurance policy in question.
- Incorrectly blames you for the collision without any factual basis for the allegation.
- Denies you coverage without reason.
- Delays the processing of your claim unreasonably.
- Provides false information about the coverage of the insurance policy.
- Does not thoroughly evaluate the claim.
- Forces you to provide an unreasonable amount of paperwork.
These are but a few examples of the many ways a liability insurance company could act in bad faith when processing a claim against its policyholders.
What Happens When Allstate Denies A Claim Made Under The Claimant’s Policy?
Some truck accident claims are filed against the injured person’s automobile insurance company rather than or in addition to the claim against the at-fault driver’s policy. Here are some situations in which you might need to seek compensation from your insurance carrier:
- You might file a claim under your uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage if the liable party did not carry liability insurance or did not carry enough coverage to fully pay for your losses.
- If you were hurt in a hit-and-run crash, you might need to file a claim under your uninsured motorist coverage. Unless the fleeing driver is caught, there is no known insurance policy to cover your losses. Insurance companies treat hit-and-run collisions the same as uninsured accidents.
Insurance companies have the same duty of good faith when handling claims made by their policyholders on their own automobile coverage as they do when handling claims by third parties.
An Overview Of Allstate Insurance
The Allstate insurance company launched in 1931 during the Great Depression. Its parent company was Sears. In 1993, Allstate became independent of Sears, wholly owned by shareholders of the publicly traded stock.
After reaching total annual assets of nearly $126 billion in 2020, Allstate assets declined to $97 billion as of March 31, 2022, according to Macrotrends. Insurance Business America reports that Allstate had more than 42,000 employees as of 2021 and 16 million policyholders with more than 175 million policies. Allstate offers policies in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C.
Call Us Today If Allstate Denied Your Truck Accident Claim
Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers can talk with you at no charge if Allstate has denied your truck accident claim. We can learn more about your accident and details about the claim denial during a free, confidential consultation today.
