As a St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer, we present injury claims to insurance companies on a daily basis.  Many of them involve the following types of incidents:

• St. Louis car accident injury claims
• St. Louis tractor-trailer accident injury claims
• St. Louis motorcycle accident injury claims
• St. Louis pedestrian injury claims
• St. Louis brain injury claims
• St. Louis spine injury claims
• St. Louis construction accident injury claims
• St. Louis dram shop claims
• St. Louis products liability claims

Anytime our lawyers present a serious injury claim to an insurance company, the claims adjuster makes a decision whether to pay or deny the claim.  In situations where an insurance adjuster improperly or hastily denies a claim, an insurance bad faith claim may become viable down the line.  I say down the line because a bad faith claim will only accrue (become viable) upon a jury verdict.  When a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit obtains a jury verdict in his or her favor, and if the insurance claims adjuster had previously denied that claim, the defendant may have a bad faith claim against his own insurance company for failing to pay the claim when it could have, thus exposing the defendant to an excess verdict. 

When an injury victim obtains a verdict in excess of the defendant's policy limits of insurance, the defendant's personal assets then become available to the plaintiff for sale and satisfaction of that excess verdict.  A string of Missouri cases deal specifically with insurance bad faith law and direct insurance companies to be very careful when evaluating the merits of a personal injury claim. Ganaway v. Shelter Mutual Ins., 795 S.W.2d 544 (Mo. App. 1990); Craig v. Iowa Kemper Ins. Co, 565 S.W.2d 716, 711 (Mo. App. W.D. 1978); Grewell v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins., 162 S.W.3d 503, 409 (Mo. App. W.D. 2005); Freeman v. Leader Nat'l Ins. Co., 58 S.W.3d 590, 598 (Mo. App. E.D. 2001); and Zumwalt v. Utilities Insurance Co., 228 S.W.2d 750 753-56 (Mo. 1950).

Insurance companies are constantly denying meritorious St. Louis personal injury claims and they must be held accountable for their actions.  Contact a St. Louis personal injury lawyer at Schultz & Myers to find out if the insurance claims adjuster in your case is acting in bad faith.