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- One Year After Insurance Fair Conduct Law, Washington Look at The Result of Referendum 67...
Posted on 12/13/2008
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Andrew Kim Law Firm, PLLC | Washington Legal News
One Year After Insurance Fair Conduct Law, Washington Look at The Result of Referendum 67
Posted on Dec 13, 2008
The Washington Public News Service reported on the one year anniversary of Washington's Insurance Fair Conduct Act, and what the Washington State Insurance Commissioner's office thinks about the effects of the new law.
The law, which is widely know as the passionately contested Referendum 67, gave Washington residents a chance to act when they thought that their insurance companies had not settle their claim in a prompt, valid, or fair way. In the process, people would notify the Commissioner's office that they were going to sue, and the Commissioner's office would notify the insurance company to give them a final chance to review the case.
On the other hand, at the same time, the law required insurance companies to deal with customers in good faith when deciding claims and claim amounts at the risk of paying three times the damages if the company lost the court case to the policy-holder.
What are the results of the law's first year?
A full 900 people from across the state have notified officials of their intent to seek litigation with an insurance company. In response, many insurance companies have added or increased training for their adjusters so that claims are settled fairly and issues that might arise from the Insurance Fair Conduct Act can be wholly avoided.
"If that's one of the outcomes of Referendum 67, that is very positive from the standpoint of consumers - that they're dealing with better-trained adjusters who are going to make the determination on their particular claim," said Commissioner Mike Kreidler.
When the insurance companies fought tooth and nail against the law last year, they claimed that Ref 67 would increase the number of lawsuits and raise insurance rates. At this point, it is difficult to tell if it has had either impact in any significant way.
"When the law went into effect, there were some insurance companies that actually came forward and said, 'We want to build in a cost factor for Referendum 67," said Kreidler. "We denied them the ability to do that, because they had no experience to show that it, in fact, would cause their rates to go up."
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10655 NE 4th Street
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Bellevue, WA 98004
Phone: (425) 289-1990
Fax: (425) 289-1991
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Tacoma, WA 98409
Phone: (253) 682-2000
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