Free Colorado Casualty practice questions

Answer: C. No cause of action arises against it for providing the information as the statute provides

Colorado's fraud statute states that no cause of action arises against an insurance company or individual for furnishing the judgment or settlement information that the subsection describes. The protection attaches to providing the information as the statute provides. The statute sets no condition requiring the licensee's consent or later discipline by the board, and the licensing board is the recipient the insurer's notice duty names, so sending the notice there is what the statute directs.

Answer: A. Endowment and annuity benefits

Under Sec. 10-2-407(1)(a), the life line covers human lives, and subparagraph (I) says that coverage shall include endowment and annuity benefits. Benefits for death or dismemberment by accident and for disability income appear in subparagraph (II) as benefits the coverage may include, so they are permitted rather than required. Coverage against legal liability for injury to others belongs to the separate casualty line, not the life line.

Answer: D. Bodily injury damages they can legally recover from an uninsured owner or driver

Colorado requires such a policy to provide uninsured motorist coverage for persons insured under it who have a legal right to recover damages from the owner or driver of an uninsured vehicle for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death resulting from a motor vehicle accident. Damage to the insured's own car is property damage rather than bodily injury, injuries the insured causes to others are a liability matter, and the coverage turns on a legal right to recover from an uninsured motorist rather than paying medical bills without regard to fault.

Answer: B. An unfair or deceptive act, because it is a knowing false filing about an insurer's finances

Colorado lists as an unfair or deceptive act knowingly filing a false written statement of material fact about an insurer's financial condition with the commissioner, another public official, or an employee or agent of the division of insurance. Overstating surplus in a report knowingly filed with the commissioner fits that description. The provision is about filings, so no public advertisement or publication is needed, and the commissioner is one of the recipients the provision expressly names.

Answer: A. The court of appeals, under the judicial review statute the section names

Sec. 10-3-1107 directs the commissioner, when there is reason to believe a person has engaged in an unfair practice and a proceeding would serve the public interest, to proceed under the state administrative procedure article. Any final action under that section is subject to judicial review by the court of appeals under Sec. 24-4-106(11). The answer saying no court may review fails because the section expressly makes final action reviewable. The answer naming the supreme court fails because the section names the court of appeals. The district court answer fails here because Colorado reserves a new trial in district court for a commissioner's order to pay a contractual claim, and the stem rules that kind of order out.

Answer: C. It must provide more information on the termination or the producer's activity

Sec. 10-2-416(1) requires an insurer to notify the commissioner of a for-cause termination and, on the commissioner's written request, to provide additional information, documents, records, or other data about the termination or the producer's activity. The duty does not end with the first notice, and the statute ties it to the commissioner's written request, not to the producer's consent. The obligation is the insurer's own; the statute does not shift it to the producer.

Answer: C. By first-class mail to the named insured, addressed to the last address shown in the insurer's records

Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 10-4-109.5(1) bars a medical malpractice insurer from unilaterally raising the premium or reducing previously provided coverage benefits on renewal unless it mails the notice first-class to the named insured, using the last address in the insurer's own records, at least ninety days ahead and with the reason for the change. Certified mail to the address on the application, routing the notice through the producer, and e-mail with a copy to the commissioner are not the method the subsection names.

Answer: D. At least ten days' notice of cancellation, and the notice has to be accompanied by the reasons for it

Colo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 10-4-109.7(1) generally requires at least forty-five days' advance notice before an insurer cancels a commercial policy such as general liability, but where the cancellation is for nonpayment of premium the insurer must give at least ten days' notice, and that notice must carry the reasons. Forty-five days is the general period for cancellation on other grounds, not the nonpayment rule, and a ten-day notice without reasons misses the reasons requirement. Sixty days is not a period this section uses.

Answer: A. Yes, because for a renewal the review period reaches back 180 days before its effective date

Colorado limits cancellation to listed reasons. One is that the license or registration of the named insured, or of an operator who lives in the household or customarily drives the insured auto, was suspended or revoked during the policy period or, for a renewal, during its policy period or the 180 days immediately before its effective date. A suspension 120 days before the renewal took effect falls inside that window. For a renewal the rule is not confined to the current policy period, it contains no exception for a license later reinstated, and it does not reach suspensions outside the stated window.

Answer: C. The division of insurance and its head, the commissioner of insurance

The section stating the purpose of Colorado's rate regulation part charges the division of insurance in the department of regulatory agencies, and the commissioner of insurance as the head of that division, with executing it. A rating organization is an entity whose purpose is making pure premium rates, rating plans or rating systems; it is not given responsibility for executing the law. The statute does not assign that responsibility to the attorney general or to the NAIC.