Delay and Deny Insurance Tactics

You filed a claim. You did everything right. You reported the accident, sought medical treatment, submitted the paperwork, and then you waited. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. The adjuster stopped returning calls. The explanation kept changing. And the bills kept coming.

This is not a coincidence. It is a strategy.

Insurance companies are not on your side. They are for-profit corporations answerable to shareholders, and every dollar they pay out in claims is a dollar off their bottom line. Delay and deny tactics are how they protect that bottom line, by making the claims process so exhausting, so confusing, and so financially painful that injured people give up, settle for less than they deserve, or miss their window to act entirely.

What "Delay and Deny" Actually Means

The phrase "delay and deny" refers to a documented claims-handling strategy used by insurance companies to minimize payouts. It was brought into public focus by Rutgers Law professor Jay Feinman in his book Delay, Deny, Defend, which exposed how major insurers systematically adopted internal policies designed to slow down, undervalue, and reject legitimate claims.

The core idea is simple: time is on the insurer's side, not yours. The longer a claim drags on, the more likely a claimant is to accept a lowball offer out of financial desperation, let a statute of limitations deadline expire, or abandon the claim entirely. Denials, even unjustified ones, work the same way, most people don't appeal, and most don't hire a lawyer.

The Insurance Company's Playbook: How Delay Tactics Work

Dragging Out the Investigation With No Clear Timeline

Every insurer has a right to investigate a claim. What they do not have is an unlimited right to investigate forever. When an adjuster repeatedly tells you the investigation is "still ongoing" without providing a timeline, a reason, or a next step, that is a sign the delay may be deliberate.

Repeatedly Requesting the Same Documents

One of the most common stall tactics is the repeat documentation request. You send medical records. They ask for medical records. You send them again. They ask for something slightly different, a different date range, a different format, records from a provider you already listed. Each cycle resets the clock.

Failing to Return Calls or Respond to Correspondence

Silence is a tactic. Adjusters who go days or weeks without returning calls, emails, or letters are not simply busy, they are creating a paper trail of inaction that runs down your patience and your clock.

Switching Adjusters Mid-Claim

When your claim is handed to a new adjuster without explanation, the process often restarts. The new adjuster claims no knowledge of prior conversations, requests documents already submitted, and schedules new evaluations. This manufactured reset can add months to a claim.

Scheduling and Canceling Independent Medical Exams

Independent Medical Exams (IMEs) are frequently used to dispute injury severity. But when insurers schedule them repeatedly, cancel at the last minute, or use them as a mechanism to delay rather than evaluate, they become instruments of obstruction rather than assessment.

Demanding Unnecessary or Irrelevant Records

Requesting years of unrelated medical history, employment records with no connection to your injury, or financial documents that have no bearing on your claim is a pressure tactic. It is designed to make compliance burdensome and to mine your history for anything that can be used against you.

Using Vague or Shifting Explanations for Delays

When you ask why your claim is delayed and the answer is different every time, or so vague it communicates nothing, that pattern matters. Document it. It may be evidence of bad faith conduct down the road.

The Insurance Company's Playbook: How Deny Tactics Work

Disputing Liability Even When Fault Is Clear

In cases with strong evidence of fault, police reports, eyewitnesses, traffic camera footage, some insurers still contest liability. The calculation is straightforward: even a disputed denial forces you to spend time, money, and energy proving something that should not be in question.

Claiming the Injury Was Pre-Existing

Pre-existing condition arguments are among the most common denial tactics in personal injury claims. The insurer argues that your injury predates the accident, is unrelated to it, or was merely aggravated rather than caused by it. Michigan law recognizes aggravation of pre-existing conditions as compensable, but insurers count on claimants not knowing that.

Arguing That Treatment Was Unnecessary or Excessive

Insurers routinely challenge the medical necessity of treatment, even when that treatment was ordered by your own physician. Their hired reviewers, who have never examined you, override your doctor's judgment on paper. This tactic is designed to reduce what they owe, not to protect your health.

Misrepresenting Policy Language or Coverage Limits

Not every claimant reads their policy carefully, and insurers know it. Mischaracterizing what a policy covers, understating applicable limits, or citing exclusions that do not actually apply to your situation are all documented insurer behaviors in bad faith litigation.

Citing Minor Application Errors to Void Coverage

If an insurer can find any discrepancy, no matter how minor or unrelated, in your original policy application, they may try to use it to rescind coverage entirely. This is called "post-claims underwriting" and it is legally questionable in many circumstances.

Low-Balling Settlements and Framing Them as Final Offers

A settlement offer that arrives quickly and is presented as "the best we can do" or "our final offer" is almost never either of those things. Early low-ball offers are designed to capture claimants before they understand the full value of their damages, particularly future medical costs and long-term lost earnings.

Denying Claims Without a Written Explanation

Michigan law requires insurers to provide written denials that identify the specific basis for the denial. When an insurer refuses, delays, or provides a denial letter so vague it communicates nothing actionable, that conduct may itself constitute a violation of your rights.

Michigan-Specific Considerations

Michigan's No-Fault System and How Insurers Exploit It

Michigan operates under a no-fault auto insurance system, meaning your own insurer pays for medical expenses and lost wages regardless of who caused the accident, up to your policy's Personal Injury Protection (PIP) limits. This sounds protective, but it creates a direct financial incentive for your own insurer to minimize or deny your PIP benefits. 

PIP Benefit Delays and Denials

Delays in PIP benefit payment are among the most common complaints Michigan accident victims report. Insurers may dispute the medical necessity of treatment, demand peer reviews that contradict your treating physicians, or simply fail to act within the timeframes Michigan law requires. The 2019 auto insurance reform law added new complexity to PIP coverage, and insurers have used that complexity as additional cover for denials.

Michigan's Unfair Trade Practices Act

Michigan's Insurance Code, including provisions of the Unfair Trade Practices Act (MCL 500.2026), sets specific standards for how insurers must handle claims. These include:

• Acknowledging receipt of a claim within a reasonable time
• Conducting a prompt and thorough investigation
• Providing written explanations for denials
• Attempting in good faith to reach a fair settlement when liability is reasonably clear

Statutory Deadlines and Consequences for Missing Them

Michigan law imposes deadlines on insurers, for acknowledging claims, completing investigations, and issuing decisions. Violations of those deadlines are not merely procedural. They can support a finding of bad faith and may entitle you to additional damages beyond your original claim.

The Truth About Delay and Deny and Why It Does Not Have to Win

Behind every delayed claim is a person waiting for help that should have come weeks or months ago. Behind every denied claim is someone who did everything right and was told it was not enough. These are not administrative oversights. They are the predictable output of a system designed to prioritize profit over people, and they work because most victims do not know they have options.

You deserve a full and fair recovery for what happened to you. Not a fraction of it. Not a number designed to close a file before you understood what you were signing. The full value of your injuries, your losses, and your future. That is what Marko Law fights for, and we do not stop until we get it.

Your Claim Deserves a Real Fight. Get a Free Case Evaluation From Marko Law.

If your insurance claim has been delayed, underpaid, or denied without a legitimate reason, you may have more options than the insurer wants you to believe. At Marko Law, we have seen these tactics before, and we know how to counter them. Contact us today for a free case evaluation with no obligation and no upfront cost.

Every case is different. Speak to a lawyer to understand your rights.

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