An Insurer Rejected Your Claim. Now What?
For anyone who has filed a personal injury claim, there is always the possibility the insurance company will reject it. What is your situation if that happens, and what might be your options?
Negotiations Aren't Necessarily Dead
Especially if you didn't work with a personal injury attorney in filing a claim, you may want to try to start at the beginning. If you filed the claim properly, then you've met the baseline legal requirements for the sake of notifying the defendant and meeting the statute of limitations. Those shouldn't be issues for someone who filed without counsel, but a lawyer will want to review the claim and rejection.
Notably, you may still have some room to negotiate even if you had counsel and the claim was outright rejected by the insurer. Your attorney will want to review the rejection letter and determine if the insurer got anything wrong. If the insurance company missed a key detail in making the decision, your lawyer can ask for a review.
You're Probably Going to Have to Sue, Though
Generally, insurers mean it when they reject claims. They appoint adjusters, and the adjusters' have a duty to pay out all valid claims. Rejection is a clear statement by the insurer that the company doesn't consider the claim valid and payable.
One big plus here is that you've made a good-faith effort to negotiate. You now have the right to sue without worrying the court will say you brought the case too soon. The issue is now ripe for a lawsuit because of the rejection.
Hearings
If you sue, a court will schedule some initial hearings. The judge will decide if the suit has enough merit to proceed. Also, the judge may order the two sides back into negotiations if the court feels the rejection was too quick or that it failed to account for a key point of law.
Note that a judge may also enter a summary judgment if one side's case is overwhelming or weak. In that scenario, you could win then there or see the case tossed entirely
Heading to Trial
Suppose nothing bears fruit by this point. You can ask the judge to send the matter to trial. Oftentimes, the threat of suffering a jury judgment will encourage an insurer to settle.
If not, then the case will proceed through discovery, a process where both sides have the right to demand the other side produces any evidence pertinent to the case. Discovery also sometimes encourages settlements. Once discover concludes, the case goes through jury selection and to trial.