Demand that your insurer hold up its end of the deal.

You have paid your hard-earned premiums for years, hoping you’ll never have to use the insurance policy you purchased. But now that day has unfortunately come. Make sure that your for-profit insurance carrier honors all of its obligations and strictly follows the law during your time of need. There are laws on the books requiring carriers to treat policyholders fairly and pay promptly. If you have any question as to whether a carrier is dragging its heels, strong-arming, or low-balling you, seek legal advice.

Understand what you’re signing. Ask questions until you understand.

Never sign any documents that release your legal claims unless it is truly your intent to do so. Do not deposit any checks from insurers that have “settlement” written anywhere on them unless you have all of the facts about the value of your loss and are completely satisfied with the amount. Otherwise, you may inadvertently sell yourself short.

Take notes and document everything you can.

Try, at once, to make a list of your possessions. If at all possible and as soon as you can, obtain a repair estimate from a trusted local contractor to use as a guide in talking with the insurance company’s adjuster. Keep receipts from emergency repairs and any costs you incur in temporary housing. This may be reimbursable under the “loss of use” portion of your homeowners’ policy.

Keep a journal of all of your contact with or attempts to contact your insurance company. If they will not return your phone calls, fail to show at a scheduled appointment, or even if they are rude to you, write this down in a notebook. Log every conversation that you have with them. This could come in handy if you need to file a complaint or later need to talk to an attorney.

Ask for proof.

If your insurance company tells you that your policy does not cover the damage that occurred or you feel that the offer is too low, ask for proof. The burden is on them to point out the part of your policy that states what they are saying is correct.

Beware of fly-by-night contractors.

When you are looking to rebuild, only use a contractor with good references and an established presence in the area. Make sure to call those references and don’t be afraid to ask tough questions when checking the contractor out. Also, be sure to look into online consumer recommendation services to get reviews of contractors and other professionals. Ask the contractor in writing if he’s ever been sued for shoddy construction or payment disputes. Price several contractors, aggressively negotiate terms and deadlines, and do not sign any contracts that are front-loaded or force you into arbitration, which strips you of your constitutional right to trial.

Additional Resources:
Texas Office of Public Insurance Counsel
Consumer Bill of Rights (Texas Department of Insurance)
State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Information Service

These tips are for general informational purposes only and are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

What’s wrong with named driver policies? Because of the gaping holes in these policies:

• More uninsured drivers are on the road;
• Innocent drivers are forced to bear the cost of repairs and medical expenses after an accident; and
• The cost of uninsured motorist coverage is more expensive for drivers with meaningful coverage.

The bill, HB 1773 by Rep. Ed Thompson, bans the use of named-driver policies outright, ensuring that anyone who drives your car is covered under your insurance policy unless you choose to specifically exclude them. As Rep. Craig Eiland said during the debate, the bill “stops the sale of junk policies that mislead people and don’t give them coverage.”

Check out the House floor debate:

The bill passed the House 109-23 with bipartisan support. It has the support of a broad coalition that includes policyholder advocates, as well as segments of the insurance industry and business community. Particular thanks to the bill’s authors, Rep. Thompson, Rep. Doug Miller, and Rep. Patricia Harless, as well as members who voiced support during the floor debate, Rep. Eiland and Rep. John Smithee, chair of the House Insurance Committee. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Demand that your insurer hold up its end of the deal.

Make sure that your for-profit insurance carrier honors all of its obligations and strictly follows the law during your time of need. There are laws on the books requiring carriers to treat policyholders fairly and pay promptly. If you have any question as to whether a carrier is dragging its heels, strong-arming, or low-balling you, seek legal advice.

Understand what you’re signing. Ask questions until you understand.

Never sign any documents that release your legal claims unless it is truly your intent to do so. Do not deposit any checks from insurers that have “settlement” written anywhere on them unless you have all of the facts about the value of your loss and are completely satisfied with the amount. Otherwise, you may inadvertently sell yourself short.

Take notes and document everything you can.

Try, at once, to make a list of your possessions. If at all possible and as soon as you can, obtain a repair estimate from a trusted local contractor to use as a guide in talking with the insurance company’s adjuster. Keep receipts from emergency repairs and any costs you incur in temporary housing. This may be reimbursable under the “loss of use” portion of your homeowners’ policy.

Keep a journal of all of your contact with or attempts to contact your insurance company. If they will not return your phone calls, fail to show at a scheduled appointment, or even if they are rude to you, write this down in a notebook. Log every conversation that you have with them. This could come in handy if you need to file a complaint or later need to talk to an attorney.

Ask for proof.

If your insurance company tells you that your policy does not cover the damage that occurred or you feel that the offer is too low, ask for proof. The burden is on them to point out the part of your policy that states what they are saying is correct.

Beware of fly-by-night contractors.

When you are looking to rebuild, only use a contractor with good references and an established presence in the area. Make sure to call those references and don’t be afraid to ask tough questions when checking the contractor out. Also, be sure to look into online consumer recommendation services to get reviews of contractors and other professionals. Ask the contractor in writing if he’s ever been sued for shoddy construction or payment disputes. Price several contractors, aggressively negotiate terms and deadlines, and do not sign any contracts that are front-loaded or force you into arbitration, which strips you of your constitutional right to trial.

Additional Resources:

• Texas Office of Public Insurance Counsel
• Consumer Bill of Rights (Texas Department of Insurance)
• State Bar’s Lawyer Referral Information Service

These tips are for general informational purposes only and are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.

This session insurance lobbyists and their clients are working hard to restrict your access to the courts if you believe your insurance company has handled your claim unfairly. And, they have filed a boatload of bad bills to do just that.

So, we commissioned the statewide public opinion survey to find out what Texas voters think. The message is clear. Texas voters – across all geographic, partisan, and political lines – want stronger legal protections from rogue insurance companies. They believe that insurance companies routinely drag out lawsuits, and they want the courts – not state agency bureaucrats – resolving disputes between claimants and insurance companies.

And, 7 in 10 voters will reward legislators who believe it should be easier (or at least not harder) for a policyholder who believes their insurance claim has been handled unfairly to hire an attorney to represent their interests. 51% hold this position”strongly.”

The results speak for themselves. Check them out for yourself.

Take action and share these poll results with your legislators.

Texas Watch Poll 2013: Press Release by TexasWatch

Texas Watch Poll 2013: Synopsis of Results by TexasWatch

Texas Watch Poll 2013: Full Questionnaire with Results by TexasWatch

Business leaders and legislators have expressed concern abut the impact receivership could have on the association’s bonding authority, as well as the ability of homeowners and business leaders to secure and maintain third party financing like mortgages and business development loans. Jumping to receivership would have a far-reaching impact on economic development and job creation, not to mention the impact it would have on policyholder claims.

Also, according to the Quorum Report (subscription required), TWIA’s “actuarial committee was told today that having the state’s windstorm insurer of last resort go into receivership could make it more difficult to receive financing to pay future storm claims or to obtain reinsurance.” This means that TWIA would have difficulty obtaining the post-event bonds and reinsurance necessary to pay for claims from a future storm.

Under the law (at right), TWIA has the obligation to assess its private industry members any amount necessary to fulfill its Ike-related obligations. The law is clear. It reads that losses “shall be assessed against members of the association.”

TWIA board members who represented consumers and agents pushed for an assessment sufficient to cover all Ike losses back in 2008, but TWIA’s private industry members out-voted them, opting for a smaller assessment instead. And, the TWIA board has chosen not to re-evaluate the need for additional assessments.

As a result, TWIA has diverted more than $300 million from policyholder premiums to pay Ike-related losses, instead of following the law. TWIA can rectify this by requiring private insurers to fulfill their obligations as outlined by the law.

Furthermore, lawmakers are considering dozens of proposals for how to insure coastal properties. Ideas under consideration vary from replacing TWIA with an assigned risk plan to maintaining TWIA’s current structure while reconfiguring its ability to obtain funds. At Texas Watch, we have no position on any of the specific bills under consideration, but TWIA and Commissioner Kitzman should allow the legislative process to work.

In the meantime, Commissioner Kitzman, in her oversight role, should demand that TWIA follow the law and exhaust all funding options to replenish the Catastrophe Reserve Trust Fund in preparation for the coming storm season before taking the drastic leap into receivership.

Take Action Now and Urge Your Senator to Reject Kitzman’s Nomination.

Kitzman’s tenure has been controversial from the get-go, and the case against her nomination is a mile long. She has testified that there’s nothing she can do about junk insurance policies, allowed deductibles to increase up to 5% of a home’s value, intentionally blocked hundreds of citizen emails, shuttered consumer health programs and rolled back patient billing protections, failed to deal honestly with coastal Texans about TWIA changes, and paid over a million dollars to out-of-state consultants.

Instead of protecting the Texas citizens who pay her salary, she approaches her job as someone who is of, by, and for the insurance industry. As a result, she has sided with insurance interests over policyholders, patients, and providers time and again.

Texans need a commissioner with the desire to protect policyholders from abusive insurance practices and high rates and is committed to real oversight and transparency. Tell your senator that Kitzman is not that person.

That’s strong rhetoric, but it is just isn’t true. There simply wasn’t a crisis. Here are the facts.

Forbes reported in 1994 that Texas experienced a phenomenal 311% increase in Fortune 500 relocations over the previous 25 years. Plus, Texas led the nation in the number of new jobs created in the year ending in July 1994.

Mr. Weekley’s assertion that our state was seeing “out of control lawsuits” is similarly false. The National Center for State Courts reported that tort legal filings in Texas grew less rapidly than the national average in the late 80s and early 90s. And, jury verdicts in Texas were below the national average in every year between 1989 and 1993.

So, what has happened since Mr. Weekley and his CEO cohorts created the largest PAC in Texas history to threaten and cajole lawmakers into adopting their anti-accountability platform for corporate and insurance industry interests?

As more and more families and small businesses find themselves unable to access the courts because of legal loopholes and immunity schemes enacted into law at the behest of Weekley’s CEO PAC, Texas courts are becoming the exclusive domain of business litigation.

With the value of death and injury in some cases set (at the behest of “TLR” and their corporate/insurance allies) arbitrarily by politicians rather than judges and juries, families with claims for abuse of nursing home residents, retirees, stay-at-home spouses and children often find themselves unable to access the legal system.

This means that people and corporations that cause needless injury and financial devastation are allowed to escape accountability.

So, Mr. Weekley and his cronies in the CEO set may be faring better because our state has shielded them from accountability, but the rest of us aren’t.

The report, prepared by Disability Rights Texas, recommends reforms to the state psychiatric hospital system. Its findings spread blame for the oversight failures widely, identifying multiple missed opportunities to protect patients from a handful of doctors whose behavior raised numerous red flags over the years:

• The Department of State Health Services, which oversees the state’s 10 psychiatric hospitals, hired and then failed to adequately supervise five physicians with histories of sexually inappropriate behavior, even though hospital officials knew about the doctors’ troubled pasts.
• The Department of Family and Protective Services, charged with investigating allegations of abuse at the hospitals, dismissed numerous allegations of child sexual abuse levied against former Austin State Hospital psychiatrist Charles Fischer over 20 years because, in part, the agency believed that patients’ mental disabilities made them unreliable.
• Prior to 2011, hospital administrators failed to act as the allegations against Fischer piled up, even when Family and Protective Services raised concerns about his behavior.

Read More: Austin American-Statesman

OPIC plays an essential role in consumer protection. It is the state office tasked with representing the interests of insurance consumers. Rather than eliminating it, we should give this tiny state office stronger authority to force insurance companies to the table when the interests of consumers are threatened. Texans already pay the highest home insurance rates in the nation, and checks on insurance industry abuses are already few and far between.

Why would lawmakers even consider eliminating the one thing that gives Texas policyholders a fighting chance against Big Insurance?

Well, just last week, OPIC took the unusual step of asking the insurance commissioner to conduct a formal rate hearing into State Farm’s huge 20% rate increase. A request the commissioner granted. Could this have anything to do with this bill getting filed? We certainly hope not. By objecting to State Farm’s latest rate hike, OPIC is fulfilling its statutory duty to represent the interests of insurance customers. This state office with a handful of employees and a tiny budget shouldn’t be threatened with abolishment simply for doing its job.

OPIC’s independence from the insurance commissioner is crucial to its ability to advocate on behalf of policyholders. In our system of insurance oversight, the Insurance Commissioner is tasked with being the referee. Without OPIC, consumers are left with no representation in key regulatory proceedings and the balance shifts irreparably to the industry. Private consumer advocates do not have the resources or access to proprietary insurance filings to enable them to fulfill OPIC’s functions.

Sounds interesting. But, if you want a more recent history that paints a picture of how the Court operates in the 21st Century, check out our report Thumbs on the Scale: A Retrospective of the Texas Supreme Court, 2000-2010. We lay out in stark detail the unrelenting pro-defendant bias that has come to dominate the modern Court.

Some of our findings include:

• Corporate and government defendants prevail in an average of 74% of cases annually.
• Consumers have lost 79% of cases in which they were pitted against a corporate or government defendant.
• Justices appointed to the Court by Governor Rick Perry have sided with consumers an average of just 29% of the time.
• Texas Supreme Court has overturned local jury decisions in consumer cases an average of 74% of the time since 2004.