Blog

Doyle has filed a workers comp bad faith lawsuit in Arizona against Ace American Insurance Company and Sedgwick Claims Management Services on behalf of an employee of Boeing. While on the job, the plaintiff sustained a severe head injury that caused her to be in a coma. Because of her injury, the plaintiff missed substantial work and needed medical treatment.

The plaintiff filed a worker’s compensation claim for medical benefits with Ace American Insurance. The claim was given to Sedgwick, a third party administrator, who then assigned an adjuster to the case. Although Sedgwick accepted that the injury was covered, it grossly underpaid the Plaintiff and ignored repeated requests to correct the amount. Even after acknowledging that the payment was incorrect, Sedgwick and Ace still refused to pay the past due benefits.

After over a year and a half of deliberate underpayment, the Industrial Commission of Arizona ordered Ace and Sedgwick to pay the owed benefits “immediately.”  In fact, Sedgwick and Ace failed to even attend the hearing.  Yet despite this clear and unambiguous order to issue payment “immediately,” for four more months the defendants still refused to pay the owed benefits in direct opposition to the Industrial Commission of Arizona’s explicit order.

This substantial delay and intentional underpayment have caused the Plaintiff to suffer severe financial, physical, and emotional distress from the delay.  Ace and Sedgwick’s outrageous conduct to purposefully underpay an injured worker when her benefits were most needed, was in bad faith and intentionally caused her emotional distress.

Doyle remains committed to ensuring this plaintiff receives the financial compensation from a company who chose to disregard a legally binding decision. If you or someone you love has been subjected to bad faith tactics such as these, please contact the attorneys at Doyle.