Tuesday, August 25, 2015

INSURANCE ADJUSTING -- THREE AXIOMS OF SOUND CLAIMS HANDLING PRACTICE





PRINCIPLES TO REMEMBER

Michael Sean Quinn*

www.michaelseanquinn.com


Here are some of the applicable standards of care, when it comes to insurance adjusting. Policyholder should study them; they are quite malleable, within the range of the reasonable. Insurers already know them, and the policyholder is to find deviations; the function of those supervising adjusters and the adjusters thermselves is not to deviate from their central themes; and lawyers for either are to formulate descriptions and arguments either purportedly demonstrating that they have been observed, or--in the case of policyholders--the opposite. So, the most important incontrovertible components of the relevant industry principles, customs, and traditions of adjustment are these:

·          First Axiom:  Insurers are obligated to treat the interests of their insured as at least equal to their own. Comment: Often this obligation is taken to be a fundamental axiom of insurance theory and practice. It is obvious that intermediaries have the same duties and level of duty as legal agents of insurers. So long as intermediaries are also the legal agents of a relevant person, I believe that intermediaries have an even higher duty.

·    Second Axiom: Every insurer in adjusting every claim must look for coverage. Comment:  The looking must include "vertical looking," ("How deep does the injury go?"), "horizontal looking ("How many different things got damaged?"), and  "coverage looking," as well as"behaviorally looking.  

·          Third Axiom:  In handling a claim, an insurer has a duty to be reasonable in all ways, at all times, with any claimant, with any claim and any component of any claim. Comment: To the extent an intermediary is involved in an adjustment process, the same principle and standard of care applies to them. This is true, even if the insurer is the decision maker and the intermediary plays no direct role in the making of that decision.

Of course, these are not the only significant axioms and principles involved in analyses like the one here, but these are always involved, at least to some degree. 


Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D., C.P.C.U. . . .
The Law Firms of Michael Sean Quinn and
Quinn and Quinn
                                                  1300 West Lynn Street, Suite 208
                                                              Austin, Texas 78703
                                                                  (512) 296-2594
                                                             (512) 344-9466 - Fax
                                                 E-mail:  mquinn@msquinnlaw.com


No comments:

Post a Comment