Last updated: November 7, 2026
When you present a personal injury claim to an insurance company, you expect them to handle your claim with professionalism and to resolve it within a reasonable amount of time. The last thing you want is the insurance company dragging their feet in resolving your claim.
Unfortunately, you will often encounter delays from not only the defendant’s insurance company, but your own insurance company.
When an insurance company delays resolving a claim, it may be guilty of acting in bad faith.
If you suspect the insurance company is dragging its feet, speak with the experienced Birmingham personal injury lawyers at Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers.
Types of Bad Faith Claims
There are two main types of bad faith claims.
These are first-party and third-party bad faith.
First-party bad faith claims involve your own insurance company; third-party claims would involve another party’s insurer. Alabama recognizes only the first kind: you can sue your own insurer for bad faith, but not the at-fault driver’s insurer, however long it stalls. The sections below explain why that matters and what to do about each.
Examples of Bad Faith Actions by Insurance Companies
Every bad faith claim is different, but there are certain actions we see more commonly than others.
Lengthy Delays
Settling an insurance claim can sometimes be a lengthy process.
Some delays and waiting are to be expected.
However, when the insurance company takes an unreasonably long time to respond to you and has not provided any reason for the delay, it could be bad faith.
Lowball Offers
When an insurance company intentionally undervalues your claim to reduce their own payout, you have the right to counter them with a reasonable demand.
If your case is clearly worth more and they refuse to entertain reasonable settlement discussions, they may be acting in bad faith.
Unexplained Denials
Insurance companies have a duty to investigate your claim. Sometimes they may deny at the onset due to a coverage issue, which should be explained.
If there is coverage and they conduct an investigation, they cannot deny your claim with no explanation.
If the insurance company unfairly denies your claim or refuses to offer any reason why they denied it, this can also be bad faith.
Using Illegal Tactics
While less common, some insurance companies engage in illegal behaviors to avoid paying out a claim.
They may withhold a witness, alter evidence, or partake in other deceitful activity to undermine your claim.
Steps to Take When the Insurance Company Is Dragging Their Feet
When you think an insurance company is intentionally delaying settling your insurance claim, you should be persistent. Continue to contact the assigned adjuster.
Don’t just leave voicemails but send emails as well to create a paper trail.
Ask for specific details. For example, if they say a supervisor is reviewing the case, ask when you will receive an update or when the review will be done.
Try asking to speak with the adjuster’s supervisor.
If the adjuster will not put you through, call back on the general number and ask for the supervisor on your claim.
Consider sending a formal demand letter in writing.
This step shows the insurance company you are serious, and they must address and respond to your demand letter.
Your next step is to contact an Alabama bad faith insurance lawyer who can help.
At Fob & Foster Personal Injury Lawyers, we deal with insurance companies on a daily basis and know how to recognize these bad faith tactics.
Why Insurance Companies Drag Their Feet
Delay is not an accident of a busy adjuster. It is a strategy, and it works for the insurer in four ways. Time pressure: medical bills, missed paychecks and a car in the shop make a low offer look better in month four than it did in month one. Evidence decay: witnesses move, camera footage is overwritten, and the gap between the crash and the treatment the insurer eventually sees grows wider. Statute of limitations: an unrepresented claimant who is still “waiting on the adjuster” when Alabama’s two-year deadline passes has no claim at all. And attrition: a percentage of people simply give up. Every week the file sits closed is money the insurer keeps, and adjusters are measured on how little they pay.
What Alabama Law Says About Claim Delays
Alabama has no statute that sets a fixed number of days for an insurer to pay an injury claim, but it does prohibit unfair claim-handling as a business practice. Ala. Code § 27-12-24 lists the practices the Alabama Department of Insurance can act against, including failing to acknowledge and act promptly on claims, failing to adopt reasonable standards for investigating them, refusing to pay without a reasonable investigation, failing to affirm or deny coverage within a reasonable time, and forcing policyholders to sue to recover amounts due. The statute does not create a private lawsuit, but a complaint to the Department of Insurance is free, the insurer has to answer it, and a stalled file often moves within weeks of one being filed.
The private remedy is the tort of bad faith, and here the distinction between your own insurer and the other driver’s insurer decides everything. Alabama recognizes bad faith only against your own insurer, on a claim under your own policy: an uninsured or underinsured motorist claim, medical payments, collision, or a health, disability or property policy. The at-fault driver’s liability insurer owes its duty of good faith to its own policyholder, not to you, so it cannot be sued for bad faith by the person it injured no matter how long it stalls. Your remedy against that insurer is the injury claim itself, filed in court within two years of the crash, where the delay stops mattering because a judge sets the schedule.
When Delay Becomes Bad Faith
Delay alone is not bad faith. Delay without a legitimate reason, after the insurer has everything it needs, can be. Alabama lets an insurer refuse or hold a claim without liability if it has an arguable reason, a real and debatable basis for the position held at the time, and the bad faith case is built by showing it had none: the medical records and bills were sent, the liability facts were undisputed, the adjuster’s own notes acknowledged the value, and the file sat. The insurer’s claim file, adjuster notes and claim-handling guidelines come only through litigation, which is why a bad faith claim is pleaded alongside the contract claim from the start rather than added later. A bad faith verdict carries the policy benefits, the financial and emotional harm the delay caused, and punitive damages, which is what makes insurers settle these cases. Our Birmingham bad faith insurance page covers the elements in detail.
What to Do This Week If Your Claim Is Stalled
- Put everything in writing. Send the records, bills and photographs by email or certified mail, keep a log of every call with the date, the adjuster’s name and what was said, and ask the insurer to state its position in writing.
- Send a demand with a deadline. A written settlement demand that sets out liability, the medical treatment and the damages, with a date for a response, converts “still reviewing” into a documented refusal.
- File a complaint with the Alabama Department of Insurance if the insurer is yours. It costs nothing and the insurer must respond.
- Check the calendar. Two years from the crash under Ala. Code § 6-2-38 for the injury claim; six years for a breach of contract claim on your own policy under § 6-2-34; and whatever shorter notice period your policy imposes for UM claims. A pending negotiation does not stop any of those clocks.
- Do not give a recorded statement or sign a medical authorization to buy goodwill. Neither speeds the claim; both give the insurer material to use against it.
- Talk to a lawyer. A represented claim is handled by a different adjuster under different authority, and a filed lawsuit replaces the insurer’s schedule with the court’s.
Insurance Delay Questions, Answered
How long does an insurance company have to settle a claim in Alabama?
There is no fixed statutory deadline for an injury claim. The insurer must act within a reasonable time under Ala. Code § 27-12-24, and what is reasonable depends on what it has been given. Once liability is clear and the medical records are in hand, months of silence is not reasonable.
Can I sue the other driver’s insurance company for delaying my claim?
Not for bad faith; Alabama does not allow it. You sue the driver for the injury, and the driver’s insurer defends and pays within the policy limits. Filing the lawsuit is what ends the delay.
Does a pending claim extend the two-year deadline?
No. Negotiations, adjuster promises and open claim numbers do not stop the statute of limitations. The lawsuit has to be filed within two years of the crash regardless of where the claim stands.
My own insurer is stalling my uninsured motorist claim. What can I do?
That is the claim Alabama’s bad faith law reaches. Document the delay, send a written demand with a deadline, file a Department of Insurance complaint, and have a lawyer review the policy for its notice and consent-to-settle requirements before anything is signed. If the insurer had no arguable reason to hold the claim, bad faith damages are available on top of the policy limits.
Will hiring a lawyer slow the claim down?
Usually the opposite. Represented claims move to adjusters with higher settlement authority, the demand package is complete the first time, and the insurer knows a lawsuit follows if the file does not move. The consultation is free and there is no fee unless we recover.
Related Practice Areas
- Birmingham Bad Faith Insurance Attorney
- Birmingham Car Accident Lawyer
- Birmingham Hit and Run Accident Lawyer
- Birmingham Truck Accident Lawyer
- Birmingham Personal Injury Lawyer
Talk to a Birmingham Lawyer About a Stalled Claim
If you suspect bad faith claims handling in your own case, please contact our office right away.
Let us put our knowledge and experience to work for you.
We will review your case, confirm whether you have a viable bad faith claim, and let you know how to proceed.
Fob James, IV
Fob James obtained a B.S., in software engineering from Auburn University and then continued his education by getting his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law. After working for a large national firm for several years, Fob found that his passion was fighting for individuals who have been seriously injured or wronged by others. Fob believes that the jury is the great equalizer to the power and influence that large corporations have in society. Many of Fob’s cases are high profile and have been featured in, among others: Bloomberg News, PlanAdvisor, AL.com, PlanSponsor, National Law Review, and BusinessInsider. For his work in obtaining numerous multi-million dollar outcomes for his clients, Fob has been recognized by: National Trial Lawyers Top 100, SuperLawyers Rising Star (2020-2026), Birmingham Business Journal Who’s Who in Law (2023-2025), and TrustAnalytica – Top Personal Injury Lawyers in Alabama.