Car insurance claims in West Virginia

West Virginia is an at-fault state whose whole shared-fault regime dates from one 2015 act. What a driver must be able to do is «respond in damages for liability, on account of accident occurring subsequent to the effective date of the proof, arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle», and since 1 January 2016 the required amounts have been $25,000 for bodily injury to one person, $50,000 per accident and $25,000 for property damage — with policies in force on 31 December 2015 continuing at the old 20/40/10 tier until they expired or were renewed (§ 17D-4-2). Both tiers are still printed in the section, so say which applies from when. The positive evidence for «at-fault» is that liability cover is what the state compels; no full-text search of the West Virginia Code was possible this round, so no assertion is made that no first-party scheme exists anywhere in it. Fault chargeable to the plaintiff does not bar recovery unless it is greater than the combined fault of everyone else responsible, and below that the award is simply reduced in proportion (§ 55-7-13c(c)), so a crash apportioned fifty-fifty still recovers half. Each defendant’s liability is several only and not joint (§ 55-7-13c(a)) — with exceptions that matter in a crash case, because a defendant whose conduct was driving under the influence, or criminal, is jointly and severally liable anyway (§ 55-7-13c(h)). If a liable defendant turns out to be uncollectible, the plaintiff has one year after the judgment becomes final to move for the uncollectible share to be reallocated, though never against a defendant whose percentage of fault is equal to or less than the plaintiff’s own (§ 55-7-13c(d)).

Both limitation periods are two years and both sit in one section: damage to property under § 55-2-12(a) and personal injuries under § 55-2-12(b). The deadline that catches West Virginians, though, is neither of those, and it is the single most important thing on this page. Under § 33-11-4a a third-party claimant — anyone hit by somebody else’s insured driver — «may not bring a private cause of action or any other action against any person for an unfair claims settlement practice», may not include such allegations in the underlying litigation against an insured, and has one remedy only: an administrative complaint to the Insurance Commissioner, «filed as soon as practicable but in no event later than one year following the actual or implied discovery of the alleged unfair claims settlement practice». Many secondary descriptions of West Virginia predate that abolition, and a claim that a West Virginia third-party claimant can sue for bad faith would be wrong. The complaint must state the statutory provision if known, the facts and circumstances, the name of anyone involved, and reference to the relevant policy language; if it is deficient the Commissioner must make contact within fifteen days to obtain what is missing. No West Virginia limitation period for a SUIT on a motor policy was read this round and none is stated here.

That makes the Commissioner’s claims rule the standard that matters, and it is detailed. Rule 114-14, filed 13 April 2006 and effective 24 April 2006, exists to «establish certain minimum standards and methods of settlements of both first-party and third-party claims», applies to all persons and all insurance policies «except Workers’ Compensation Insurance», and states that «Nothing in this rule creates or recognizes, either explicitly or impliedly, any new or different cause of action not otherwise recognized by law» — so the timetable is enforced by the Commissioner rather than by suit, which matters enormously given § 33-11-4a. An insurer must acknowledge notice of a claim within fifteen working days unless it pays IN FULL within that time, and notice to its agent counts as notice to it; it must reply within fifteen working days to any pertinent communication expecting a response, and answer the Commissioner within the same fifteen working days (§§ 5.1–5.3). If it needs more than thirty CALENDAR days from a first-party proof of loss, or from a third-party notice of claim, to accept or deny, it must say so in writing within fifteen WORKING days after those thirty days expire, and then explain the delay again every forty-five CALENDAR days, with reasons each time (§ 6.7). Once the investigation is complete it has ten working days to deny in writing or make a written offer (§ 6.3), and anything finally agreed must be paid within fifteen working days of the agreement or of the claimant performing any condition, whichever is later (§ 6.11). An unreasonably low settlement offer is itself prohibited — «No insurer may attempt to settle a claim by making a settlement offer that is unreasonably low» — and the rule lists the factors the Commissioner weighs, beginning with the extent to which the insurer considered the claimant’s own evidence of value and the legal authority made known to it (§ 6.4.b). Given that an administrative complaint is a third-party claimant’s only remedy, that is the standard such a complaint is judged against.

On the car itself the rule is the most granular in this dataset. If the insurer intends to inspect damage before repair it has «seven (7) working days from the date of receipt of notice of loss» to do so; it must mail or hand deliver its proof of loss or payment «within ten (10) working days» after the insured accepts its offer; a total loss earns it «an additional five (5) working days»; and «if any element of a physical damage claim remains unresolved more than fifteen (15) working days from the date of receipt of proofs of loss by the insurer, the insurer shall provide the insured with a written explanation of the specific reasons for the delay», unless fraud or arson is reasonably suspected, with «an updated letter of explanation … every thirty (30) calendar days thereafter until all elements of the claim are either honored or rejected» (§ 114-14-7). Total-loss valuation is constrained too: the insurer must rely on values «currently available or … available within ninety days from the date of loss», from a source producing «statistically valid fair market values» drawn primarily from the area where the vehicle was principally garaged and covering «at least eighty-five percent (85%) of all makes and models of private passenger automobiles for the last fifteen (15) model years».

Uninsured motorist cover is compulsory: no policy may be issued or delivered «unless it contains an endorsement or provisions undertaking to pay the insured all sums which he or she is legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle, within limits which shall be no less than the requirements of section two, article four, chapter seventeen-d of this code» — that is, at least 25/50/25 since 2016 — and the subsection contains no rejection right. Three West Virginia specifics travel with it: the cover REACHES PROPERTY DAMAGE as well as injury, the insurer «may exclude the first $300 of property damage» caused by an uninsured motorist, and UNDERINSURED cover is a compulsory OFFER rather than compulsory cover, which the insured may take «up to an amount not less than limits of bodily injury liability insurance and property damage liability insurance purchased by the insured without set off» — with underinsurance measured against the insured’s own underinsured-motorist limit, and «no sums payable as a result of underinsured motorists’ coverage may be reduced by payments made under the insured’s policy or any other policy» (§ 33-6-31(b)). A higher optional tier of $100,000 / $300,000 / $50,000 must also be made available with appropriately adjusted premiums.

Reporting in West Virginia is a phone call rather than a form, and the statute says «crash» throughout rather than «accident». The driver of a vehicle in a crash «resulting in injury to or death of any person or total property damage to an apparent extent of $1,000 or more shall immediately by the quickest means of communication, give notice of such crash» to the local police department if it happened in a municipality, otherwise to the county sheriff or the nearest State Police office (§ 17C-4-6); where the driver is physically incapable and another occupant could do it, that occupant must (§ 17C-4-8). The WRITTEN report is the investigating officer’s duty and not the driver’s — there is no driver’s report to a state agency of the kind Iowa, Nebraska and New Mexico impose — and the officer must prepare it within twenty-four hours of completing the investigation, with a preliminary report on the tenth day where the investigation cannot be finished in ten days (§ 17C-4-7(a), (d)). Subsection (b) gives a claimant something better than a report: «Within 24 hours of a motor vehicle crash, the investigating law-enforcement officer shall provide the owner, operator, and insurance information upon request for all the involved parties to each of the other involved parties, and to each party’s respective insurance agents. This information shall be made available, at no cost, whether or not the accident report has been completed.» Whether inherent diminished value is recoverable in West Virginia has not yet been verified against a primary text and is not stated here. The Commissioner’s claims rule never uses the word at all: a byte-level search of the instrument for «dimin» — in ASCII and in UTF-16, and for «Dimin» — returns zero, as does «loss of value», while the same method finds «depreciat» five times and «betterment» three, so the search was shown to work on controls. That is the strongest such negative in this dataset, and it is still a fact about the regulation rather than evidence that the loss is recoverable.