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Advocacy For Business Owners In Insurance Claims

If you have incurred damage to your business, you may need to submit an insurance claim to compensate for your losses. I offer a valuable service to business owners who have dealt with the financial cost that can be suffered in these situations. Your business may be your livelihood and it is my goal to protect it. I am able to assist in filing a claim with your insurer or a lawsuit against third parties that bear responsibility for your property damage or business losses.

An insurance claim is an official request that you make to an insurance provider to receive money for the damages. When you make a claim, the insurance company will assess it and approve or disprove the claim based on their own research, which is done by an appraiser. The appraiser is expected to objectively investigate if your claim is valid and consistent. To avoid the rejection of your claim, or to assert your rights if your claim has been denied, give me a call for experienced legal counsel and advocacy in a sometimes adversarial process.

Why Would An Insurance Provider Reject My Claim?

Insurance companies may not approve your claims for various reasons. Some of these reasons are valid and some are industry practices to limit payouts. The insurer may say you didn’t pay your insurance premiums, which can deactivate your policy. The provider may claim that they are not responsible because your damages do not fall under the conditions of your policy or that the accident was caused by carelessness or natural disasters. Sometimes a simple mistake can cause setbacks and minor errors that eventually prove to be larger problems.

In addition, an insurance company can reject your claim if they feel that the amount of money that you are asking for is inflated. The appraiser is the person responsible for evaluating your claim and deciding if it is reasonable. By contacting my office, I can assure you that we will give quality support while you are making your claim so that any rejection can be avoided. Call now to schedule a confidential consultation.

How To File An Insurance Claim

After incurring damage to your business, it is important to quickly take certain steps to file an insurance claim. Failure to take immediate action could result in failure to get any coverage.

  • Contact your insurance provider: Find out where you can send a written notice of your claim which should include a description of the incident and the damages that were incurred. Once you provide them with written notice, then by law, they are required to investigate your claim within 15 days (Tex. Ins. Code § 542.055; BOR ¶ 30), so you should do this even if the company tells you that you don’t have to give written notice.
  • Record the scene: Though you may want to jump right in and clean up the mess, take some time to take pictures or video record the damages. Illustrations are priceless in providing proof of losses should there be a dispute later down the road. Conduct your own assessment of the scene even if an insurance agent has come to evaluate the losses. Different adjusters can be put on claims at different points of the process and mistakes can happen or information can be lost. Only rely on yourself to fully document everything!
  • Take inventory: Write down all items or property associated with the damage, take pictures and give the list to the insurance adjuster. Make sure that you don’t throw any related items away before the adjuster has come out to see them for himself.
  • Take notes: Always make a note of everything that happens throughout the claim, including all of your actions and all the insurance company’s actions. This will help ensure that there is less confusion later.
  • Communicate in writing: After any actions by the insurance company, make sure to follow up in writing so that there are no misunderstandings and the claim can be investigated with speed. Also, ask for frequent updates on the status of your claim to ensure that your claim gets dealt with.

Get Legal Counsel

As an experienced attorney, I can better prepare the claim because I am familiar with the documentation or information an insurance company is looking for and how to help the adjusters ease the process. If a valid claim gets disputed, then the insurance company is required to pay the legal fees.

Contact my Houston firm, Patricia M. Davis, Attorney at Law, at 713-936-9553 for a personalized case evaluation to make certain that your claim is dealt with correctly!