Secure Your Property Insurance Benefits with a Las Vegas Property Insurance Attorney
When you buy insurance for your family home against a future calamity, you expect your insurance company to be there when you need them most. Your insurance company should honor the contract and pay for your injuries or damages as promised.
Most of the time, they will. But, unfortunately, some companies don’t. That is when you need a Las Vegas property insurance claims lawyer at Leverty & Associates Law. Our Las Vegas-based team can help you fight against bad-faith insurance companies and ensure you receive the coverage you paid for.
About Our Firm
Leverty & Associates Law represents individuals and businesses facing bad-faith insurance claims. Our expertise is knowing the insurance laws, regulations, and practices that go into making or denying an insurance claim. This lets us know if an insurer has a valid reason for denying your claim or if they are acting in bad faith.
The attorneys at Leverty & Associates Law have a combined experience of more than fifty years, letting us reach total wins of more than $150 million. Our team-oriented approach lets us use our combined talents to get outstanding results in every case we handle, for our clients’ best advantage.
If you are facing a legal situation, there is an attorney at Leverty & Associates Law who can understand it and help you get the fair treatment you deserve.
Practice Areas
Insurance covers almost every aspect of our lives. The legal team at Leverty & Associates Law can handle bad faith claims for almost any type of insurance issue, including:
- Accident Insurance
- Automobile Insurance
- Liability
- Comprehensive/Collision
- Uninsured Motorist
- Underinsured Motorist
- Business Liability Insurance
- Business Interruption Insurance
- Construction Insurance
- Coverage Disputes
- Delayed Claims
- Denied Claims
- Failure to Defend
- Fire Insurance
- Homeowners Insurance
- Insurance Agent Mistakes, Failures, & Errors
- Property Damage Insurance Claims
- Property & Casualty Insurance Claim
- Underpayment of Claims.
Issues with insurance companies can run the gamut from simple denials of a claim to outright fraud committed by an agent or a company. They all share the common element of preventing you from getting the coverage you need just at the time you need it most.
When you have questions about your insurance coverage and it seems like you’re not getting the answers you need from your agent or the company, it’s time to contact a property insurance lawyer like those at Leverty & Associates Law. We can help you get the resolution you need.
Frequently Asked Questions About Property Insurance Claims
Insurance companies are required to abide by legal precepts of “good faith and fair dealing.” In Nevada, the law is covered under Nevada Revised Statute 686A, prohibiting unfair methods and deceptive acts.
Some examples of acting in “bad faith” include:
- Interpreting the policy in an unreasonable manner
- Unreasonable delay in investigating a claim
- Unreasonable delay in paying benefits
- Unreasonably failing to reimburse the entire amount of loss
- Unreasonably failing to defend or settle a lawsuit.
The important word in all these examples is “unreasonable.” Not all claim denials or delays are done in bad faith. For instance, if 7,000 homes are damaged in a natural disaster, a delay in investigating claims and paying benefits is not unreasonable. It becomes unreasonable when the delay extends beyond the time when an insurer should have been able to investigate a claim.
Bad-faith insurance cases are considered tort claims. That means the plaintiff—the party bringing the lawsuit—can recover actual or contract damages or the amount of benefits due under the policy or contract. If your insurance policy should have paid you $10,000 to repair a storm-damaged roof, then you can recover $10,000 for the roof damage.
We can answer these types of questions at Leverty & Associates Law Chartered. Rather than make a claim under the wrong policy, consult with one of our property claim attorneys to ensure that you make the correct claim from the start.
At Leverty & Associates Law Chartered, we don’t charge a flat rate for insurance claims denial cases. Instead, we charge you on contingency. This means we only get paid if you get compensation in your property insurance case.
- Consequential damages may be recovered if the court considers them appropriate. Consequential damages are any amount that a party should have foreseen was likely to result from a breach of contract. For instance, your insurer should reasonably have foreseen that if your roof was not repaired, you would incur damage to the inside of your home and be forced to pay for repairs out of pocket. Attorney’s fees and court costs for bringing the lawsuit are usually included as part of consequential damages.
- Punitive damages are usually unavailable in a contract case. Punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant, as the name implies, and tort cases are meant to make the plaintiff whole. However, a court may award punitive damages to a plaintiff in cases involving fraud, malice, or other criminal acts.
Your own insurance company has a duty to defend you in some kinds of lawsuits. They are also required to settle in some cases. The most common example would be a car accident. Suppose you were at fault in the accident. Your insurer refuses to pay the other driver’s claims (refuses to settle), so the other driver has to file a lawsuit against you to pay their medical bills.
Your insurance company must pay for your legal defense here; if they don’t, they could be acting in bad faith. Either they agree to the other party’s settlement offer, or they defend you in court. Of course, this would not be the case if the reason for the accident falls outside your policy — for instance, they don’t have to defend you if you were under the influence.
Look at some of the things that insurers do that are considered acting in bad faith. Then see if any of them are things your insurance company has done with you.
Consider the first one: interpreting the policy in an unreasonable manner. Most policies come with a long list of property insurance exclusions and exceptions. These describe things that are not covered by your policy. For instance, water damage policies often exclude floods, flash floods, hurricanes, wet microbursts, damage caused by insect intrusion, and other causes of water damage. People who live in flood- or hurricane-prone areas must buy separate flood and hurricane insurance.
Denying a claim for water damage after a flood would not be unreasonable if it was excluded from your policy. However, interpreting an overflow from a birdbath after a summer rainstorm as a “flood” and denying a claim for damage would be unreasonable.
When you contact a property insurance lawyer with Leverty & Associates Law Chtd., they will explain all the tricks and tactics insurance companies use to find ways not to pay your claim. They will review your case carefully to spot the flaws in the insurer’s denial and let you know whether you have a bad faith claim.
Why Choose Us
You never want to go against a shady insurance company alone. Insurance law is confusing at best and proving good faith and bad faith depends on who was being “reasonable.” You need someone with the experience and the knowledge who can demonstrate not just one incident but a pattern of behavior by the insurer against you and others like you.
We have more than 50 years’ experience in Nevada taking on the big insurance companies over matters large and small, and we know what to look for when they say your issue is not covered under their policy. Our team knows all the tricks of the insurer’s trade, and we will work to get you the fair payout you deserve.
Attorney Patrick Leverty is a certified Personal Injury Specialist with the State Bar of Nevada, and a member of the Million Dollar Advocate Forum and Multi-Million Dollar Advocate Forum, professional organizations for attorneys who have won those sums for their clients. Patrick has a master’s in insurance law, so he is a natural at helping those with issues with their insurance companies. He is AV rated with Martindale Hubbell (highest rating) and is a lead attorney at our firm.
No matter where you are in the litigation process, Leverty & Associates Law is ready to step in and pick up the case. Our past clients agree that we are here to get the job done.
How We Can Help
Even before calling Leverty & Associates Law, there are things you can do to help your case. When it’s time to pick up the phone or write an email, there is information that will kick your case into high gear.
To prove the insurer has been dealing with you in bad faith, here are some things that your property insurance claim denial lawyer at Leverty & Associates Law can do after hiring us to help show you’ve been doing all the right things:
- Review the insurance contract: As noted already, not all denials are in bad faith. Be sure that your policy covers the type of damage you think it does. We will review the policy to ensure you didn’t misread or misunderstand the policy language.
- Keep a correspondence log: Keep records of everyone you talk to, including the date, time, and names of the people you spoke to along the way. If you were transferred, try to get the name of the person who transferred you and whom they said they were sending you to. It may seem tedious, but it isn’t uncommon for insurance company personnel to turn over faster than those at the local fast-food restaurant.
- Appeal the denial of the claim: This may be the first step your attorney will take for you. Legal cases must follow a strict protocol leading to a lawsuit, known as “exhausting administrative remedies.” This means you tried every other way to get them to listen to you and were denied or ignored at each step.
- Write a demand letter: Your attorney will contact the insurance company via a specifically worded letter known as a demand letter. This does several things. It puts the company on notice that you believe the denial is in bad faith, lets them know legal action is being considered and tells them you have an attorney and that they need to speak with the attorney from here on out.
- Your attorney will consult with you to decide whether you want to proceed with legal action. You may have several options.
a. State court is where you go if your insurer is incorporated in Nevada and all actions related to the case occurred in your home state.
b. Federal court is where you’ll need to file if the insurer is an out-of-state company or if any actions arose outside of Nevada.
Most cases only go to litigation if the insurer refuses to offer an adequate settlement or accept a reasonable offer. In Nevada, the parties must attend court-ordered mediation before trial.
In court-ordered mediation, the parties must agree on a neutral third-party mediator who will meet with the parties one on one and attempt to work out an agreement one last time before taking the case into the courtroom. Your attorney may recommend mediation before the judge orders it if it seems that this step might work, especially if the other side refuses to negotiate.
When all else fails, your attorney will take the case to court. The attorneys at Leverty & Associates Law have an outstanding courtroom record because we take the time to do all the hard work before we ever set foot in front of the judge.
Contact Us
We know that when you call an attorney to help you with your insurance claim denial, you are frustrated, angry, and even in despair that anything will go your way. The legal team at Leverty & Associates Law is here to help you with your insurance matter with decades of practical experience and a solid knowledge of insurance law.
Your initial consultation is free. Call today at (702) 507-0201 or leave us your information on our intake form, and someone will be in touch right away. Give us a call and let us help.
Attorney Patrick Leverty
With his master’s in insurance law, Patrick routinely helps individuals and businesses who are having issues with their insurance company. He also has extensive experience with personal injury actions, complex tort actions, product liability matters, and class actions. Patrick Leverty is rated AV by Martindale Hubbell (the highest rating) and has been granted membership in the Million Dollar Advocate Forum, and Multi-Million Dollar Advocate Forum. Patrick Leverty has been certified as a Personal Injury Specialist by the State Bar of Nevada. [ Attorney Bio ]
Insurance companies are part of a trillion-dollar for-profit industry. Health insurance, homeowners’ insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, and business insurance are unavoidable costs of everyday life. When you’ve upheld your end of the contract by paying your premiums on time, you shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get the coverage you deserve. Our experienced attorneys can work for your best interests, pressing insurance providers to meet their obligations for coverage.
