Many states limit injured employees to their state’s workers’ compensation system and whatever their statutory entitlement might be. However, Arizona residents have other options and more and more are starting to flex their workers’ compensation muscles – especially in bad faith cases.
Insurers just don’t get it
Some insurance companies are worse than others when it comes to committing bad faith. We asked Charles Surrano, an Arizona attorney and member of the Advocate Law Group network with 30 years experience who specializes in bad faith litigation, workers’ compensation and disability claims against insurance companies, which workers’ compensation insurance companies are committing bad faith in Arizona. Here’s his reply:
I think the real question would be – which ones have I not seen commit bad faith. However, I can’t really single out any one of them as many insurers simply handle their claims badly. There are variations and degrees, but when it comes to the duty of good faith and fair dealing, I think that, by and large, they just don’t get it.
Now, I think that’s changing because more of these cases in the past several years have been brought to Superior Court and have resulted in verdicts, but that’s only been very recently. The law allows us to bring these common law bad faith cases against insurance workers’ compensation. However, there aren’t many because people have not been aware of it until now. They’ve not overcome this inertia that they find at the Industrial Commission and decide to go to Superior Court instead. As people see what happens when these cases go to Superior Court, and there have been very favorable rulings for claimants, that may start to change.
Don’t limit your recovery
As Surrano says, there are really two avenues to recovery in Arizona. He was perplexed at why so many people limit their recovery by contacting an attorney who doesn’t know how, or feel comfortable with, bringing a bad faith claim to increase the area of their playing field. He explained further, “The first step in the process is to preserve your workers’ compensation claim. It may well be after the insured goes to the workers’ compensation attorney that he or she says, ‘You know, let’s forget the Industrial Commission altogether. We don’t want to fix anything. We’re going to go to Superior Court. The insurance company didn’t want to investigate the claim; they just wanted to flat out deny it. Fine, I’m just going to sue them for bad faith in Superior Court and I’m going to get all my damages. I won’t be limited to what the Industrial Commission might provide me.’ That’s where the bad faith attorney comes in, so why not discuss it with someone who understands all the available avenues in the very beginning?”
Your insurer WILL fight back
Insurance companies are famous for settling cases in order to avoid going to court. It can be an expensive and time consuming ordeal. However, according to Surrano, insurance companies tend to fight bad faith claims. “It’s true in almost every bad faith case. It’s rare that they settle. When you file a bad faith case, you have to be committed to it and that’s another reason a lot of workers’ compensation attorneys don’t want to get embroiled in bad faith cases – because they are time consuming. They can be very expensive and complicated as well. Attorneys know that the insurance company is going to bring enormous pressure to bear in opposition and they don’t like dealing with that.”
Competing interests leave consumers behind
When you hire an attorney, you assume that he or she will be working strictly to further your best interests. Unfortunately, many attorneys who represent clients in Arizona may have their own competing interests and consumers may get left behind. Surrano explained:
The Industrial Commission is much like a lawyer’s social club. They all know each other. It’s a small little family of lawyers. It’s a nice little nitch practice if you can get it, but nobody really rocks the boat. I’ve spoken at their seminars and stuff. They all know each other. If you go to a workers’ compensation attorney, they may not help you in a large bad faith claim against an insurer if they deal with that insurer day in and day out trying to get claims paid and settled for them.
These insurance companies can make it very difficult on any claimant’s attorney who doesn’t want to play ball with them. All of a sudden, the insurer just won’t want to settle cases with that attorney anymore and it can seriously impair his or her practice. So to some extent, a lot of these attorneys have trepidation about angering the insurance companies.
