What is bad faith insurance, and how do I prove it?

“Bad faith is when the insurance company breaches the contract and then engages in additional bad behavior. Bad faith is a tort that is meant to address the insurance company’s behavior, not necessarily the merits of the claim. So, examples of bad faith might be an arbitrary and capricious denial. An insurance company is allowed to investigate a claim and deny it, but they’re not allowed to deny the claim without doing an adequate and thorough investigation. Another example might be an unreasonable delay. An insurance company is allowed to take their time and investigate, but what they’re not allowed to do is just sit on a claim for months at a time, not take any action or not communicate with its insured. So whenever we see a situation of breach of contract, we also go that extra step to look at the insurance company’s conduct during the investigation and determine whether they have also committed bad faith.”