Timeliness of insurance claim investigation and payment is often critical to the well-being of a policyholder.  One of the fundamental “rules of the road” of good faith claim handling requires the insurance company to timely investigate, evaluate and pay claims if owed.  Likewise, a company’s unreasonable, unfair failure or refusal to do so is bad faith.  Unfortunately, all too often insurance companies engage in delay tactics that put their policyholders in unnecessarily difficult situations. Under the law,…