Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

The words are "bad faith." If your own insurance company acts in bad faith you can sue them. Watch out for legal time limits.

It depends on what they were supposed to do and who they were supposed to do it for. If it was your insurance company, Mr. Stone may be right that it was "bad faith." If it's the other guy's insurance company, though, you have no rights at all.

Both prior answers have useful information in answer to your question. If it is your insurance company, it might be bad faith. That is not available to you in the case of when it is the other person's insurance company though in either case it may represent violation of claims handling regulations which can be brought to the attention of the state Dept. of Insurance which has a consumer complaint and request for assistance process.

Another part of the answer is a part of your question itself. If the company breaches what the contract says is required of it, the identification of the legal cause of action is "breach of contract."