According to a new study from the Insurance Research Council (IRC), evidence suggests that legislation adopted by the Washington State Legislature in 2007 and approved in a statewide voter referendum may have caused an increase in homeowners insurance claim costs in the state. It is estimated that claim costs were as much as $190 million greater than they otherwise would have been in the two-year period following the law’s enactment. The Insurance Fair Conduct Act, commonly referred to as R-67, eased restrictions for aggrieved insurance claimants filing lawsuits alleging bad faith against their own insurance companies, and authorized the payment of virtually unlimited punitive damages to bad-faith claimants, in addition to the payment of actual damages, attorneys’ fees, and court costs.

This report summarizes findings from initial quantitative and focus group research completed in 2000, and explores the issue of information sharing in context of the tradeoff between strict protection of consumer information and the benefits that result from allowing businesses to share customer information within and between companies.

This study demonstrates the variations in homeowners insurance loss experience across and within eight major U.S. cities and the communities within five miles of the cities' boundaries. The eight urban areas included in the study are Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and St. Louis. The report provides detailed information on claim counts and dollar losses by six major causes of loss - fire, lightning and removal; liability and medical; wind and hail; water and freezing; theft; and all other causes of loss.

Surveys of small businesses released in 1991 and 1989 explore attitudes and beliefs about insurance-related topics as they apply to U.S. businesses having between 2 and 49 employees. Topics covered include insurance coverages held, shopping patterns, availability/cost of business insurance, and claim satisfaction. The more recent study also reports on perceptions about the relative costs of business insurance and attitudes and beliefs about fraudulent insurance claiming behaviors.