Fort Lauderdale Bad Faith Insurance Lawyer
You paid the premium for years, and the one time you needed the policy your own insurer went quiet or offered a fraction. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Broward County since 1993.
Bad Faith Insurance claims in Fort Lauderdale
The carrier has a file, a timeline and a written reason for what it did, and none of it has been shown to you. Meanwhile the repair is not happening, the money is not arriving, and the letters keep asking for documents you have already sent twice. Making them answer in writing is our job, and it starts the day you call.
Most of the bad faith work arising in Broward starts as something else: an uninsured motorist claim the carrier will not pay, or a property claim underpaid after a storm. The route is statutory. A civil remedy notice is filed with the Department of Financial Services setting out what the insurer did wrong, and the insurer then has sixty days to cure it by paying. If it pays, there is no bad faith claim. If it does not, the failure becomes actionable, and damages can exceed the policy limits. Getting the notice right matters, because a vague one gives the carrier something to argue about later.
A Florida bad faith claim starts with a civil remedy notice filed with the Department of Financial Services. The insurer then has 60 days to pay or fix the problem, and many do. If it does not, the refusal itself becomes actionable, and a bad faith recovery is not capped by the policy limits the way the underlying claim was.
What to do when an insurer will not pay
- Ask for the complete claim file in writing. Adjuster notes, the activity log, every report the carrier commissioned and the internal valuation. Ask by letter or email so there is a record of the request and the date. What is in that file, and what is missing from it, is most of a bad faith case. A carrier that investigated properly has a file that shows it, and a carrier that did not has one that shows that instead.
- Move the whole conversation into writing. Phone calls leave the carrier’s note and nothing of yours. From here on, confirm every call by email the same day: who you spoke to, what they said, what they asked for and what they promised. It takes four lines. Six months later, that sequence of emails is the timeline, and the timeline is what makes a delay look like a decision rather than an accident.
- Send what they ask for, and keep proof you sent it. Requests for documents already supplied are one of the recurring patterns here, and the answer is not to refuse. Send it again, note that it was previously provided on a date, and keep the transmission record. A carrier repeatedly asking for what it already has builds your file rather than yours falling apart.
- Know which clock you are on. An injury claim, an uninsured motorist claim and a statutory bad faith claim each run on different deadlines, and the bad faith claim generally cannot even be brought until the underlying coverage and amount have been settled. Establishing which applies is the first hour of work, because a strong claim that missed a notice deadline is not a claim.
- Do not wait for the carrier to reconsider. Waiting is the one approach that only helps the insurer. Nothing about a file sitting open improves with time: the deadlines shorten, the memories go, the adjuster changes and the loss gets harder to document. If a claim has been open for months without a decision, or with a decision that does not match what the loss actually cost, that is the point to have it looked at.
Where these disputes come from in Fort Lauderdale
Almost nothing arrives at this office labeled as a bad faith case. It arrives as a claim somebody has been arguing about for months, and the statutory route only becomes obvious once the file is read.
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Uninsured motorist claims against your own carrier
Florida does not require drivers to carry bodily injury liability coverage, so in a serious Broward crash the policy that actually pays is frequently your own.
- A claim against your own insurer’s money, adjusted the way it adjusts any other
- Duties of good faith the carrier owes you and does not owe a stranger
- Stacked coverage across household vehicles, which is often missed
- A carrier’s own medical review that supported the claim while the payment did not follow it
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Property claims underpaid after a storm
The other main source, and the one with the shortest and least forgiving deadlines.
- Payments below what a contractor will actually do the work for
- Supplemental claims submitted and never answered
- A claim closed without the policyholder being told it was closed
- Deadlines running from the date of loss rather than from the dispute
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Liability carriers that would not settle inside the limits
Where a Broward defendant’s insurer had a real chance to close a case within its policy and refused, the exposure moves to the carrier.
- A time-limited demand written properly at the start rather than argued about at the end
- What the adjuster knew about the injuries when the demand was open
- The carrier’s own file: the reserve set, the round-table notes, the authority requested
- A judgment above the limits, which is what the whole structure exists to reach
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Where the file actually lives
A bad faith case is a documents case, and the documents are held by the people being complained about.
- The claim log, which shows what was done between the phone calls
- Internal valuation and the inputs it was given
- Every report the carrier commissioned, including the ones it did not act on
- Correspondence with its own insured, which frequently reads differently from the calls with you
What insurers do that the statute addresses
- Refusing a genuine opportunity to settle inside the policy limits, then leaving its own insured exposed to the judgment
- Valuing an injury against a software template rather than against the treating records
- Requesting documents that were already supplied, repeatedly, as a way of restarting the clock
- Denying a claim without an investigation that could reasonably support the denial
- Ignoring the carrier’s own medical review when it favored the claim
What an insurer’s delay actually costs
A judgment above the policy limits
The classic consequence, and the one that turns a capped claim into an uncapped one. Where a carrier had a real chance to settle within its insured’s limits and refused, and a judgment then lands above them, the shortfall becomes the carrier’s problem rather than the policyholder’s. It is also the outcome the carrier is trying hardest to avoid, which is what gives an early demand its leverage.
Treatment that stopped because nothing was paying for it
The most common real-world harm and the least visible in a claim file. Somebody stops going to physical therapy, defers a procedure or does not fill a prescription because there is no way to pay, and the medical record then shows a gap the same carrier later points at. The gap and the reason for it are documentable, and documenting them at the time is far easier than explaining them afterward.
A settlement taken because waiting was no longer possible
The quietest harm in this practice. Somebody with no income and mounting bills accepts a fraction of what the claim was worth, not because they were persuaded but because the carrier outlasted them. A release signed under that pressure cannot be reopened, and the pressure itself is frequently the point of the delay.
What Florida law requires you to prove
The notice comes first, and the carrier gets 60 days
A statutory bad faith claim runs under Fla. Stat. § 624.155, and it starts with a civil remedy notice filed with the Department of Financial Services and served on the insurer. The notice is a condition precedent: no action lies until 60 days have passed, and none lies at all if the carrier pays or corrects the problem inside that window. Many do, which is the fastest good outcome available. It has to identify the statutory provisions, the facts and the policy language relied on, so a vague one hands the carrier an argument it should never have had.
What has to be shown, and what is not enough
The core ground is an insurer not attempting in good faith to settle a claim when, under all the circumstances, it could and should have done so had it acted fairly and honestly toward its insured and with due regard for their interests. It also reaches the unfair claim settlement practices listed in Fla. Stat. § 626.9541. Since 2023 it says plainly that mere negligence alone is insufficient, which raised the bar and did not remove it. A carrier that ignored its own file rather than mishandled it is still squarely inside the section.
The insurer has a way out, and so do you
Under the same statute a bad faith action does not lie where the insurer tenders the lesser of the policy limits or the amount demanded within 90 days of receiving actual notice of a claim supported by sufficient evidence. That is the safe harbor, and it is why the first demand is written carefully rather than casually. The statute also puts a duty of good faith on the insured and the claimant, and lets the trier of fact reduce damages where it was not met. Both directions matter before the first letter goes out.
The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide bad faith insurance page rather than being restated in every market.
How we prove it in Broward County
These claims are won on sequence. What the carrier knew, on what date, and what it did next is the whole argument, and it gets assembled document by document.
- The complete claim file, including the activity log and adjuster notes
- The policy as issued, with all endorsements, rather than the declarations page alone
- Every report the carrier obtained: medical review, engineering, estimating, surveillance
- The internal valuation, and what was fed into it
- Dated proof of every document sent to the carrier, and every request it repeated
- The demand as served, and what the carrier did within the time it was open
- The civil remedy notice, drafted to identify the provisions, the facts and the policy language
- Where property is involved, the date of loss and what was reported when, which decides whether the claim is still alive
The notice is the piece that gets rushed and should not be. It sets the boundaries of the case, the carrier gets 60 days to answer it, and a vague one hands over an argument that was avoidable.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in Fort Lauderdale is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled bad faith insurance claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile → -
Brett J. Yonon Senior Trial Attorney Selected to Florida Super Lawyers in 2024 and 2025. Brett Yonon is who this firm puts on a catastrophic injury or a death in the family, and he has tried those cases to verdict. Full profile →
What a carrier says once you push back
Everything above describes what a carrier did. This is what it says once somebody stops accepting it, and none of these answers is the end of a conversation.
- The claim is still under review
- For how long, and against what? Florida sets periods for acknowledging, investigating and deciding a claim, and an open file is not the same as an active one. The claim log shows what was actually done between the calls, which is frequently nothing. A file described as under review for months with no entries in it is not a defense, it is the evidence.
- We need these documents before we can proceed
- Send them, again, and note the date they were first provided. Repeated requests for material already in the file are one of the listed patterns, and every repetition strengthens the record rather than the excuse. What matters is that each request and each response is documented, because the sequence is what shows whether the carrier was investigating or stalling.
- This is what the claim is worth
- Ask what it was valued against. Injury claims are routinely valued by software fed with codes rather than by somebody reading the treating records, and property losses by an estimate no contractor will work to. Ask for the valuation and its inputs. Where the carrier’s own review supported the claim and the payment did not follow it, that gap is the case.
What a claim can include
The full amount the claim was actually worth
Starting with what should have been paid under the policy in the first place, which is where every one of these cases begins.
The judgment above the policy limits
Where a carrier refused a real chance to settle within its insured’s limits and a judgment landed above them, the excess is the carrier’s to answer for rather than the policyholder’s.
Interest, and the cost of the delay
Interest on what was owed, and the documented financial consequences of not having it: collection activity, credit harm, a loan taken to cover a covered loss.
Why Wolf & Pravato in Fort Lauderdale
A Broward bad faith case is filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit at the Broward County Courthouse, and this office has worked in it since 1993. The underlying claim and the bad faith claim are usually handled by the same people here, which matters because the decisions that make a bad faith case are made in the first months of the underlying one.
Richard Pravato has been Board Certified in Civil Trial law by The Florida Bar since 2004. The Bar lists 861 lawyers in the state holding it against a membership over 109,000. What it means in practice is that the other side knows the file can go in front of a jury, and files that can go to trial are priced differently from files that cannot.
The first conversation is free. We are paid out of the recovery or not at all, and if we do not think there is a claim worth bringing we will tell you that rather than take it.
Fort Lauderdale bad faith insurance questions
My own insurer is refusing to pay. Can I do anything about it?
Yes, through a specific process. A civil remedy notice is filed with the state identifying the statutory violations, and the insurer gets 60 days to pay and end it. Many do at that point, which is the fastest outcome. Where it does not, the refusal itself becomes a claim, and a bad faith recovery is not limited by the policy limits the way the underlying claim was.
What happens if they pay within the 60 days?
The bad faith claim goes away and you get paid, which is usually the best available result. The statute is built that way on purpose: no action lies where the carrier pays the damages or corrects the circumstances inside the window. That is not a loss. It is the outcome a properly drafted notice is trying to produce, and it arrives in two months rather than two years.
Is it worth doing if my claim is small?
Sometimes, and the size of the underlying claim is not the measure. The point of the statute is that the carrier’s conduct is judged separately from the amount in dispute, so a modest claim handled badly enough is still actionable, and the 60-day cure period costs very little to invoke. Where it is genuinely not worth it, that is a straight answer you should get on the first call.
My insurer is delaying. Is that bad faith?
It might be, and delay alone usually is not. What matters is whether the handling was reasonable: whether the insurer investigated properly, communicated, and responded to settlement opportunities. The pattern in the correspondence is what establishes it, which is why keeping the paper trail matters so much.
The policy limit is far too low for my injuries. Is anything possible?
Sometimes, and this is where bad faith becomes important. If the insurer had a reasonable opportunity to settle within the limit and failed to take it, its exposure may extend beyond that limit. It depends heavily on what was offered, when, and how the insurer responded.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
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Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 2101 W Commercial Blvd, Suite 1500, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.