Pennsylvania gives policyholders a real statutory weapon: if an insurer denies or drags out a claim without a reasonable basis, 42 Pa.C.S. § 8371 lets a court award punitive damages, attorney fees and interest at prime plus 3%. The catch is the proof and the forum — you must show bad faith by clear and convincing evidence, and in state court the bad-faith claim is decided by a judge, not a jury.
Three listing slots on this page are available to attorneys licensed in Pennsylvania who handle disputes against insurers. Listings are paid advertising sold at a flat monthly rate. They are shown in the order they were purchased. We do not rank, score, endorse or recommend any attorney, and we have not assessed the quality of anyone’s work.
The PBA service covers 47 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties; the initial consultation is capped at $30 for 30 minutes. Philadelphia and Allegheny counties run their own programmes, so go to the county bar directly there. Pennsylvania runs no state certified-specialist programme and has no certified insurance-law credential. A lawyer may advertise certification only from a private body approved by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, naming the certifier.
Worth checking before you spend money on a lawyer. Two different measures exist, and they are not interchangeable — one is a real payment record, the other is a complaint count.
Health insurers selling on the federal marketplace must report how many claims they received and how many they refused. The figures are public and free to inspect.
The spread is the point. Two insurers selling comparable cover in the same state can refuse wildly different shares of what they are billed for. Look your own up before you assume your refusal was routine.
Source: CMS Transparency in Coverage public use files, plan year 2023 experience. Self-reported by insurers and not audited. Covers federal-marketplace plans only — not employer cover, and not state-run marketplaces. Post-service claims only.
There is no free public figure showing what share of home or auto claims any named insurer pays. Insurers do report it to regulators, but in most states that filing is confidential. Any table you see online quoting payout percentages for property insurers is either a paid commercial product or an estimate.
What is public is the complaint index — how many confirmed complaints a company generates against its share of the market. 1.00 is average. 3.00 means three times the complaints its size would predict.
Complaint indexes are published by state insurance departments and compiled by the NAIC. Figures move with both the company’s complaints and the wider market’s.
Under 31 Pa. Code Ch. 146 the insurer must acknowledge a claim within 10 working days, reply to pertinent communications within 10 working days, and accept or deny within 15 working days of receiving proofs of loss. If it needs longer it must say so in writing, then update within 30 days and every 45 days after.
There is no right to a jury on a bad-faith claim in Pennsylvania state court. Mishoe v. Erie (Pa. 2003) held that because § 8371 says “the court” may award relief, a single judge decides bad faith and sets the punitive award. Policyholders routinely get a jury on the contract count and lose it for punitive damages in the very same case.
A complaint to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department costs nothing, creates a written record, and sometimes moves a stalled claim on its own. It is not a substitute for legal advice and it does not pause any deadline — but there is rarely a reason not to do it first.
This page is information, not legal advice. Insurance law differs by state and changes often. Nothing here creates a lawyer–client relationship, and no page can tell you whether your own claim is worth pursuing. If a deadline may be close, speak to a lawyer licensed in your state now rather than later — several of the deadlines described here start running on the date of the loss, not the date your claim was refused.
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