Arizona Workers Compensation Insurance Bad Faith Lawyer

The reality of Arizona’s “no fault” workers compensation insurance

The law requires that most employers in Arizona—and throughout the country—provide Workers Compensation Insurance for employees. And since Arizona is a “no fault” insurance state, employees should receive medical care and compensation no matter the cause of an accident and injury at work.

Unfortunately, large insurers covering many employees in Arizona have other plans.  Many never plan on paying benefits and find a variety of ways to avoid their obligations:

• Failure to Investigate and Fairly Evaluate Claim
• Arguing that an employees injury was reported too late
• Unfairly accusing employees of practicing fraud
• Underpaying workers compensation benefits
• Bullying employees in to settling for unfair compensation

As a result of your workplace injury, your quality of life may be damaged. Your relationships may have suffered. You may be unable to earn a living and you may be in pain. If an insurance company is adding to this trying time in your life, you (or your workers’ compensation attorney) can file a statutory complaint for unfair claim processing with the Industrial Commission of Arizona (ICA) before final resolution of your workers’ compensation claim. You must file a complaint with the ICA within sixty days of the bad faith action or omission. If bad faith is found, the ICA may award a penalty. Although these penalties are generally nominal, an award of statutory bad faith penalties can be evidence for common law bad faith. Mr. Harward is not a workers’ compensation attorney; does not appear in front of the ICA regarding the underlying workers’ compensation claim; and does not file statutory complaints for unfair claim processing with the ICA.

However, under Arizona law, workers’ compensation carriers are also subject to liability for common law bad faith claims separate and apart from any statutory penalties obtained through the ICA. Mr. Harward does handle Arizona common law bad faith claims. These claims can be extremely complicated and generally require at a minimum that the Arizona worker has first sought and obtained workers’ compensation benefits through the ICA. If a worker has been unsuccessful at the ICA, the worker cannot overturn an unsuccessful ICA determination by filing a common law bad faith claim. Under Arizona law, the ICA has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether an injured worker is entitled to benefits and the amount of those benefits. A premature common law bad faith claim when an injured worker has not successfully exhausted all ICA administrative remedies will likely be dismissed.

Arizona Insurance Bad Faith Law ensures your right to fair treatment and justice from insurance companies, but there are required steps to be taken especially in a workers’ compensation setting. For a lawyer intensely focused on getting Arizona insureds the benefits they deserve, contact the Law Offices of Shane L. Harward for a phone consultation whether you are in Phoenix, Mesa, Scottsdale or anywhere in Arizona.

The Law Offices of Shane L. Harward: Serving Arizona Insurance Policy Consumers since 1995

Shane L. Harward has successfully challenged insurance companies when they mistreat policyholders. He is committed to getting his clients what they deserve and has consistently defeated large insurance companies. He is always on the side of insurance policyholders in benefit disputes. Now he can help you.  With Shane L. Harward, you will get personal attention and consistent communication until your case is resolved.