This guide offers advice to consumers and business owners on how to easily find codes and regulations, government agencies, cases, experts and forms.

If you're looking for insurance codes, regulations, and cases, the following resources will prove helpful:

• State Insurance Department. Your state’s insurance department website will provide information on relevant codes and regulations, in addition to the Fair Claims Practices Regulations.
• Insurance Law Database. Sites such as findlaw.com offer free insurance law databases, where you can obtain information on both state and federal level insurance codes and regulations. FindLaw also includes the text of case law from most US states and federal court cases. What free resources such as FindLaw do not cover, commercial sites such as lexis.com contain the most current cases and codes.
  
• Local County Law Library. Sometimes, the old fashioned way is still the best. The county law library is usually located in the same building as the court house. They will also have much more than just codes and regulations, and most also have free access to Lexis. The county law library will also have “secondary sources” of insurance law, such as treatises, learned opinions and discussions.
  

Government Agencies & Insurance Law

The only US government agencies that deal with insurance law regulation are the 50 state departments of insurance. Insurance is not regulated by the federal government unless there is insurer fraud under the RICO ACT.

Insurance Law Experts

Before hiring an expert, it pays to know their history.

• Stay away from experts who make a living at being experts. For example, a structural engineer who earns 90% of his income from inspecting disaster damaged homes on behalf of insurance companies is more likely to be biased in favor of insurers than an engineer who earns 90% of his income working for new construction building contractors.

• Always examine the CV or Resume and website of any expert proposed by the other side to act as a “neutral” arbitrator. This can help you determine who their target customer is (you or the insurance company) and thus who they are more likely to favor. Also run the name by local lawyers, who can tell you if an expert has a reputation for bias in either direction.

Insurance Forms

“Forms” pertaining to insurance law can be construed to mean “Policy Forms”, or “Legal Forms” used in the claims handling process, or “Forms of Pleading and Practice” used by attorneys in the litigation process.

“Policy Forms” are usually derived from generic ISO (Insurance Services Office) policy forms and endorsements. Original ISO forms are used by most smaller insurers. Larger household name insurers, like Allstate, revise the forms wording and put their own logo on the policy. Most insurers don’t post their policies on their websites. For a fee, you can subscribe to the ISO website and download their generic policies at www.iso.com. You can also purchase a handy “CPCU Handbook of Insurance Policies” for under $200.00. It’s about 600 pages and contains selected sample ISO policies. Their web address is www.aicpcu.org.

Actual finalized “Policy Form” copies and editions dating back 30 years (which are often still sold) are available for free download at UClaim Insurance Claim Consulting or Insurance Claim Help. There are over 60 policies from many US insurers including ISO policy forms and policy forms modified by the major US insurers. There are also numerous endorsements in addition to policies.

“Legal Forms” used in the claim handling process can be found in the appendixes of claims handling text books for insurance adjusters and certain legal publications. Examples of such forms are “Proof of Loss”, Policy Holders Release”, “Release” (for non policy holders), “Affidavit of Vehicle Theft”, “Non Waiver Agreement”, “Replacement Cost Agreement”, and hundreds more.

As a consumer, you will only see these type forms if the insurance company presents you with one. Be aware that most of these forms contain wording and warnings that are not required by your policy or the law.

“Forms of Pleading and Practice” used by attorneys in the insurance claim litigation process. You can see these at your local county law library. They will be of no use to you as a consumer, unless you are acting as your own attorney in litigation against an insurer.

Businesses, consumers and lawyers in need of insurance claim law advice may also seek information from online insurance claim consultation firms. Sites like United Policy Holders offer free general claims related advice, while commercial sites such as UClaim offer insurance claim law related reports.