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After an accident or injury, you expect the insurance company to handle your claim fairly. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Delays, low settlement offers, and denied claims are common. At Grooms Law Firm, we step in to protect your rights and hold insurance companies accountable.
Whether you’re dealing with your own insurance provider or another party’s insurer, we work to ensure your claim is properly evaluated and handled. Our goal is to level the playing field and pursue the compensation you are owed.
Insurance companies have teams focused on minimizing payouts. We advocate for you—reviewing your claim, identifying issues, and taking action when your claim is unfairly handled.
Insurance disputes often involve complex policy language, strict deadlines, and negotiation tactics designed to reduce compensation. We help you understand your coverage, challenge unfair decisions, and build a strong claim backed by evidence.
Dealing with an insurance company can be frustrating, especially when you’re trying to recover from an injury. Even small mistakes or missed deadlines can impact your claim.
We focus on protecting your interests, resolving disputes efficiently, and pursuing fair compensation. Whether through negotiation or litigation, our goal is to ensure you are treated fairly under your policy.
An insurance company in South Carolina has a legal duty to handle your claim honestly and to investigate it in good faith. When an insurer denies a valid claim, delays it without explanation, or offers far less than the claim is worth, that conduct may amount to insurance bad faith — a separate legal claim on top of the money you were already owed under the policy.
South Carolina has recognized a first-party bad faith action since Nichols v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (1983). The state insurance code sets out what counts as an improper claim practice (S.C. Code Ann. § 38-59-20), and § 38-59-40 allows a policyholder to recover attorney’s fees when an insurer refuses to pay without reasonable cause. Most claims of this kind must be brought within three years (S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530).
Insurance disputes turn on documentation and deadlines. We request the full claim file, put the carrier’s reasoning in writing, and build a record that shows what was owed and when. In many cases that alone moves a stalled claim. When it does not, we are prepared to litigate. You work directly with Taylor Grooms throughout — you are not handed off to a case manager.
If your claim involves a serious crash, you may also want to read about Charleston motor vehicle accident claims or our guide to insurance bad faith in South Carolina.
You generally need to show there was a valid policy, that the insurer refused to pay benefits due under it, that the refusal had no reasonable basis, and that you were harmed as a result. Evidence usually comes from the carrier’s own claim file, adjuster notes, internal guidelines, and the timeline of what the insurer knew and when. Because that material sits with the insurance company, these cases are built through formal discovery rather than phone calls.
Recovery can include the benefits that should have been paid under the policy, consequential damages caused by the delay or denial, and attorney’s fees under S.C. Code Ann. § 38-59-40 where the refusal to pay lacked reasonable cause. Punitive damages are possible where the insurer’s conduct was reckless or intentional. What any individual claim is worth depends entirely on its own facts.
It is more demanding than a standard claim. An insurer is allowed to disagree with you, and a denial is not bad faith simply because it was wrong — the question is whether there was any reasonable basis for it. That is why the claim file and the sequence of events matter so much, and why it helps to involve an attorney before the record hardens.
Most bad faith and related claims fall under South Carolina’s three-year statute of limitations (S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530). Your policy may also impose shorter notice and proof-of-loss deadlines, and missing one of those can affect the claim even when the three-year window is still open. It is worth having the policy reviewed early.
Grooms Law Firm handles these matters on a contingency fee, which means there is no upfront cost and no fee unless we recover compensation for you. The initial consultation is free, and we will tell you honestly if we do not think a dispute is worth pursuing.
If your insurance claim has been denied, delayed, or underpaid, contact Grooms Law Firm for a free consultation and we will review your policy and the carrier’s decision with you.
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Helpful insights and straightforward answers to guide you after an injury—so you can make informed decisions from the start.
If you’ve been injured, you don’t have to figure this out alone. We’re here to answer your questions, explain your options, and help you take the next step with confidence.
