I think the law needs to change. Statutory damages for any initial refusal that is later overturned, whether by a court or by the company themselves. Treat it as breach of contract.

This is is to change the economics so that there is a cost to a business for automatically denying, just as there is a cost to the claimant when the business automatically denies.

> Home/auto insurance will often give you a black hole for claims; the adjuster won't get back to you for months at a time. But if you keep calling them enough to be annoying, they will usually eventually pay out.

Fortunately I live in a more reasonable country, where I don't have to keep chasing them; I can simply claim through the court system instead. I think the system works here - I haven't heard that to be a problem here.

I would agree with this solution, and also think that these other reforms to the legal system are necessary:

1.) The cost of the court system needs to go way down. It's not okay to have justice be a luxury good; every citizen needs to have a way of adjudicating and enforcing their rights.

2.) Laws need to be enforced uniformly. Right now the usual outcome for the squeaky wheel that files a lawsuit is that they get paid out in a decent settlement, the case is dropped, and the corporation goes right on screwing everybody else who doesn't bother to enforce their rights. Or it becomes a class-action lawsuit where the lawyers get $40M, the plaintiff gets $10M, and every other member of the class gets a check for $100. If a judgment for a class-action lawsuit is $10M, every member of the class should get $10M, not just the plaintiff. If this bankrupts the corporation, so be it: maybe their business practices were invalid to begin with.

3.) Relatedly, laws that are never enforced should fall off the books so we don't get this kind of "regulation by enforcement" that can be used to arbitrarily punish people, as well as wholesale shifts in the legal regime based on which party is in power.

4.) It should be easier to collect on judgments. It can take years for a judgment or settlement to clear your bank account in the U.S. Some people don't have years, particularly those with health conditions or living on the edge of poverty.