Injury Law
Insurance Company Dispute Attorney for Los Angeles County and Orange County
An insurer that delays, underpays, or denies is not being careless. It is following a process. Fred Yadegar knows the rules that process has to obey, and he holds the company to them.
- A decision to accept or deny is due within 40 days of your proof of claim (10 CCR §2695.7)
- Letters and calls must be answered within 15 days (10 CCR §2695.5)
- Unfair claims practices are listed in the Insurance Code (Ins. Code §790.03(h))
- Your own insurer can owe more than the policy limit if it unreasonably withholds benefits
An insurance company dispute usually begins quietly: an offer that ignores half your treatment, a claim file that goes silent for weeks, a denial letter with a paragraph of reasons. Fred Yadegar represents injured people and policyholders in Los Angeles County and Orange County in disputes with insurers, whether the company on the other side is the at-fault driver’s carrier or the one you have paid premiums to for years.
Two insurers, two different duties
The distinction that shapes every dispute is whose insurer you are dealing with. The other driver’s carrier owes you honest claims handling under California’s regulations, but it does not owe you loyalty; its job is to pay as little as your claim allows. Your own insurer is different. It owes you a duty of good faith under your policy, and a first-party carrier that unreasonably withholds benefits can be held liable for bad faith, with damages that reach beyond the policy limit. That exposure is what turns a stalled uninsured motorist claim into a matter the company takes seriously.
The deadlines the company must meet
California’s Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations fix the timeline. Once an insurer has your proof of claim, it has 40 days to accept or deny it (10 CCR §2695.7). Every letter, email, or call you send must be answered within 15 days (10 CCR §2695.5). The Insurance Code separately lists the practices that count as unfair, among them misrepresenting what a policy covers and failing to attempt a prompt, fair settlement once liability is reasonably clear (Ins. Code §790.03(h)). These rules do not make an insurer pay on their own. A documented pattern of missed deadlines does change the conversation, though, and it becomes part of the record if the dispute is litigated.
Deadline: Count the days. If the insurer has held your proof of claim for more than 40 days without a decision, or has let a letter sit for more than 15, it is already outside the regulations. Bring the dates to Fred and we will put them in writing to the company.
What an early offer leaves out
An offer made in the first weeks after a crash is priced on incomplete information. It typically covers the emergency visit and little else: no follow-up imaging, no physical therapy, no time off work, no allowance for an injury that has not finished declaring itself. It arrives with a release, and signing the release ends the claim, including the parts of it you do not know about yet. The measured response is to decline in writing and let the medical picture develop before any figure is discussed. When the claim is presented later with complete records and a wage-loss calculation, the number the insurer is willing to consider changes.
Minimum-limits drivers and the uninsured-driver rule
Many disputes are really about how much coverage exists. The state minimum for liability coverage rose on January 1, 2025 to $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident, with $15,000 for property damage (Ins. Code §16056, SB 1107). When the driver who hit you carries only that, your own underinsured motorist coverage is what fills the gap (Ins. Code §11580.2), and your own insurer will evaluate that claim as skeptically as any adversary would.
The reverse problem is Proposition 213. A driver who was uninsured at the time of a collision generally cannot recover pain-and-suffering damages, even when the other driver was completely at fault; the recovery is limited to economic losses such as treatment costs and lost wages (Civ. Code §3333.4). The rule has an exception when the at-fault driver is convicted of DUI, and adjusters tend to invoke it in situations it does not cover. Ask before you assume it applies to your claim.
Steps to take while the claim is open
- Communicate with the insurer in writing whenever you can, and keep every letter, email, and voicemail.
- Ask for the reasons behind any offer or denial in writing.
- Decline recorded statements requested by the other driver’s insurer and refer the adjuster to your lawyer.
- Cooperate with your own insurer as your policy requires, but keep your answers short and factual.
- Find your declarations page and note your uninsured, underinsured, and other coverage limits.
- Record each contact with the company: the date, the name, and what was said.
- Leave any check undeposited and any release unsigned until it has been reviewed.
- Call before a deadline passes so that the violation is documented rather than lost.
Why bring the dispute to Fred
Fred Yadegar has been a licensed California attorney since 2006 (State Bar #244184), and he handles insurance disputes for people throughout Los Angeles County and Orange County. Once our office is on the file, the insurer’s calls come to us, the missed deadlines are put in writing, and the claim is presented with the records and the legal basis an adjuster needs before authorizing a meaningful payment. If the company still will not move, the case is filed. Injury-related disputes are taken on contingency, with no upfront cost. If you don’t get paid, we don’t get paid. For the underlying crash claim, see car accidents; for claims that exceed a minimum policy, see serious injuries; for the rideshare company’s layered coverage, see Uber or Lyft accidents.
Written and reviewed by Fred Yadegar, California attorney, State Bar #244184, licensed since 2006.
Questions about insurance company disputes
In California, bad faith is a claim against your own insurer for unreasonably withholding benefits it owes under your policy, for example by refusing a valid uninsured motorist claim without a fair investigation. When it is proven, the damages can exceed the policy limit itself.
Send them again, in writing, with a dated cover letter, and keep a copy. Repeated requests are a common delay tactic, and the regulations require a response to your communications within 15 days (10 CCR §2695.5). A documented pattern of delay supports the case later.
No. A denial is the insurer's position, not a ruling. It must state its reasons, and those reasons can be answered with records, expert opinions, and, when necessary, a lawsuit. Bring the denial letter to the first call.
Not quite. Your own insurer owes you a duty of good faith under your policy, which the other driver's insurer does not, and that duty is what gives a bad-faith claim its force. Both companies are bound by the Fair Claims Settlement Practices Regulations.
For injury-related disputes, no. The matter is handled on contingency, with the fee paid from the recovery. If you don't get paid, we don't get paid.
Insurer not moving? Put the rules to work.
Send us the offer, the denial, or the file that has gone quiet. Injury-related disputes are handled on contingency. If you don't get paid, we don't get paid.
Contingency fee applies to injury and surplus-funds matters. Costs may be advanced and repaid from any recovery; ask us how it works in your case.