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The claimant in this case was a welder who was injured on the job. The judge noted the man, who suffered a permanent disability, was offered a “ridiculously low” settlement as the insurance companies dragged its feet for years on the claim.

You have a flooded home and they won’t cover. I have someone [who gets sick] in New York with travel insurance and they won’t cover

While cases like this may not be the norm, Toronto lawyer Sivan Tumarkin has built a legal practice around getting insurance companies to pay up.

“I’m just getting more and more of these,” said Mr. Tumarkin, who used to work for insurance companies in a defence capacity. “I only started doing this because I had people coming to me who were having issues with insurance companies. You have a flooded home and they won’t cover. I have someone [who gets sick] in New York with travel insurance and they won’t cover.”

He says the insurance companies don’t out and out reject claims for no reason but their objections are in many cases for negligible reasons.

Mr. Tumarkin had an older couple as clients recently who put in a health claim for a fracture suffered by the wife while on vacation in the U.S. The claim was paid but the insurance company when back into their medical records and found out some of the information filled out in the application was incorrect and demanded $30,000 back.

The basis of many insurance claim rejections is something on a policy being filled out incorrectly, either on purpose or because of a misunderstanding.

You buy a life insurance policy and say you don’t smoke even though you have the occasional butt at a bar. One day you get killed in a car accident. If your insurer finds out about your occasional indulgence, there’s a good chance they’ll fight the claim.