Louisiana has a substantial population, large economy, and strong business climate to support a thriving insurance sector. A National Association of Insurance Commissioners survey shows over 1,600 domestic and foreign insurers licensed to do business in the state. Louisiana ranks third nationally in flood insurance premiums, fifth nationally in allied lines premiums, and in the top half nationally in health and total premiums, reflecting the substantial insurance market to support your insurance business. Yet the Louisiana Department of Insurance is as interested in ensuring your regulatory compliance as are the insurance departments in other states. You could lose your Louisiana insurance license to disciplinary charges.
If you face disciplinary charges against your Louisiana Department of Insurance license, your best move is to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best disciplinary outcome. Our highly qualified attorneys are available for your defense in New Orleans, Lafayette, Metairie, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Kenner, Bossier City, Monroe, Alexandria, Prairieville, Houma, Marrero, Central, and all other Louisiana locations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve your valuable Louisiana insurance license and practice. Here are a few of the ways in which we help defend and defeat Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary charges.
Louisiana Insurance Department Authority
Do not doubt the Louisiana Department of Insurance's authority to discipline your insurance license. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:2 creates the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to regulate insurance practice in the state. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:12 requires every individual practicing insurance in the state to comply with all code provisions. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:18 expressly authorizes the Insurance Commissioner to issue, refuse to issue, suspend, or revoke a license to an individual seeking to practice insurance in the state. Other provisions of the Insurance Code require a license for transactions in specific lines of insurance. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:13 makes it a crime punishable by up to five years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine to intentionally violate the insurance code, such as by practicing insurance without a license. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:11 further empowers the Insurance Commissioner to adopt regulations to enforce the state's Insurance Code provisions, which the Commissioner has done by detailing enforcement regulations. Practicing without an insurance license in Louisiana is far too hazardous to entertain. Let us help you defend and preserve your insurance license.
Louisiana Discipline Multistate Licensure Issues
Don't expect to keep your Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary issue in Louisiana. Don't run from your Louisiana disciplinary charges, thinking that you can just rely on an insurance license you already hold or hope to get in another state. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554 states expressly that “[h]aving an insurance producer license, or its equivalent, denied, suspended, or revoked in this or any other state, province, district, or territory” is a ground to deny, suspend, or revoke a Louisiana insurance producer license. This statutory term comes from the Insurance Producer Model Act, which many other states likewise follow. Discipline in Louisiana, thus, likely means discipline against any insurance license you hold in another state. Discipline in Louisiana also likely means your inability to gain an insurance license in another state. You can't run and hide from disciplinary charges. Better instead to face them now with our highly qualified help.
Louisiana Insurance Professional Misconduct
The wrongs that Louisiana insurance professionals commit are usually like the wrongs that insurance professionals in other states commit. The Louisiana legislature adopted Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554, stating the wrongs that could get your license revoked or suspended. Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary officials cannot simply charge you for anything they deem inappropriate. Instead, they are bound to follow the Insurance Code's provisions, which articulate statutory grounds for their disciplinary charges. The Louisiana legislature's statutory grounds, listed in Insurance Code Section 22:1554, include all of the following disciplinary grounds also found in the Insurance Producers Model Act followed in other jurisdictions:
- license application fraud, sometimes known as credential fraud;
- license application omissions of disqualifying information;
- cheating on an insurance license examination;
- misappropriating customer funds or personal property;
- misrepresenting insurance coverages to customers in transactions;
- making or advising false insurance applications;
- forging insurance applications or other transactions;
- violations of the insurance code or adopted insurance regulations;
- violations of insurance commissioner standards of conduct;
- violating an insurance department order having to do with discipline;
- ignoring insurance department subpoenas in an investigation;
- felony criminal conviction;
- unfair trade practices such as false advertising;
- incompetence or untrustworthiness in insurance transactions;
- financial irresponsibility or dishonesty;
- discipline of an insurance license in another state or jurisdiction;
- conducting insurance business with unlicensed individuals;
- failing to pay child support or state income taxes.
Louisiana Insurance Department Disciplinary Grounds
While Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554 includes the above disciplinary grounds, also found in the Insurance Producers Model Act, Louisiana's Insurance Code also includes other disciplinary grounds. Like other states, Louisiana draws on its own experience as to the kinds of misconduct for which it will punish its insurance producers. Those additional grounds punishable under Section 22:1554 with discipline up to license suspension or revocation include:
- conviction of a misdemeanor crime “involving moral turpitude or public corruption”;
- failing to “account for or remit any premiums, monies, or properties belonging to another” in the course of insurance business;
- going bankrupt “with debts related to the receipt or transmittal of insurance premiums or other funds” of an insurer or insured held in any fiduciary capacity;
- employing another person in insurance practice when that other person has a disqualifying felony conviction.
Notice of Louisiana Insurance Department Charges
When you learn of your Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary charges, you'll likely be very concerned. But don't let your natural concern discourage you from fighting the charges. Disciplinary charges are only allegations. Allegations don't necessarily have supporting evidence behind them. Disciplinary officials may have based their allegations on speculation, guess, conjecture, or even gossip or rumor. They may be on a fishing expedition to see if they can discover evidence of a wrong when they don't yet have any evidence, only someone's baseless complaint. Don't assume anything. And don't ignore the charges. Instead, promptly retain our highly qualified attorneys to help you defend and defeat the charges.
Defenses to Louisiana Insurance Department Charges
Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary officials have the same obligation as officials in other states to establish their disciplinary charges with substantial evidence. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554, stating the disciplinary grounds, expressly incorporates the protections of Section 22:2191. Section 22:2191, in turn, incorporates the protections of the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act for hearings on disciplinary charges. One of those protections, articulated in Louisiana Administrative Code Title 46, § XLV-9923, is that the disciplinary officials must establish their charges by a preponderance of the evidence. The proof burden is on the disciplinary officials, not on you. Our highly qualified attorneys may thus be able to defend the charges on any one or more of the following bases:
- complaining witnesses mistakenly identified you as the wrongdoer when others committed the alleged wrongs;
- complaining witnesses deliberately misidentified you as the wrongdoer to cover up their own wrongs or retaliate against you;
- complaining witnesses correctly identified you as involved in the disputed transaction or act but misunderstood the circumstances, as to which there was no wrong;
- the charges depend on showing that you acted deliberately knowing of the wrong when, to the contrary, you were unaware of any wrong;
- you were acting reasonably under the direction of a supervisor with superior knowledge of the circumstances, and your actions were thus in a safe harbor even if a technical violation;
- you acted conforming to the standards of other insurance professionals under the same or similar circumstances, as our forensic consultants may testify on your behalf;
- you caused no one any loss or harm, and you promptly corrected your actions as soon as you recognized that they violated a rule or standard;
- extenuating circumstances such as a medical emergency, medication reaction, or other extraordinary stressor excused your actions, which have no probability of repeating;
- you have no prior record of having committed any wrong and, to the contrary, have an excellent record of providing valuable insurance services to appreciative employers and clients;
- you are able to complete or already have completed remedial education or training, or rehabilitative diagnosis, counseling, and treatment, such that punitive sanctions are unnecessary and unwarranted.
Louisiana Insurance Consumer Complaints
The Louisiana Department of Insurance offers the public an online complaint form so that literally anyone may make a complaint against you or any other insurance producer or adjuster. The disciplinary officials charging you may have based their complaint on allegations from a customer, competitor, former employer, or someone you've never known or met. The person alleging your misconduct may not have anything on which to base the allegations, or they may have a vendetta against you or other conflict of interest that our attorneys can expose. The point, once again, is not to assume anything but to get our help to learn the basis for the charges and to prepare your defense. And don't wait for the formal charges. Instead, hire us as soon as you learn that someone has made a complaint against you. We may be able to reach the assigned investigator, provide your information and documentation, and head off the charges. Better not to face disciplinary charges at all than to have to convince officials that they never should have filed the charges.
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Procedures
As indicated briefly above, Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554 refers to Section 22:2191, incorporating the protections of the Louisiana Administrative Procedure Act for hearings on disciplinary charges. You have a constitutional right to due process when facing Louisiana Department of Insurance disciplinary charges threatening your license. Due process means fair notice of the charges and a fair opportunity to tell your side of the story before an impartial decision-maker. When you receive notice of the charges, we can appear on your behalf, requiring the disciplinary officials to communicate with us while we invoke your statutory due process rights. We can find out more about the charges, including any evidence the officials have against you. We may be able to arrange early conciliation conferences at which to negotiate for voluntary dismissal of the charges. If, instead, your matter moves forward to a formal hearing, then we can appear on your behalf to call you and other witnesses to testify in defense while we also cross-examine any adverse witnesses. If you have already lost your formal hearing, we can take the appeal available under Louisiana's Administrative Procedure Act. If you have already lost your appeal, we can seek the limited available court review. Don't give up. Let us exhaust all available avenues for relief until we obtain your best possible disciplinary outcome.
Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Discipline Forms
The Louisiana Insurance Commissioner has the discretion to impose a range of discipline forms. Louisiana Insurance Code Section 22:1554 authorizes the Commissioner to “place on probation, suspend, revoke, or refuse to issue, renew, or reinstate an insurance producer license” when finding grounds to do so. The same section authorizes a fine not to exceed five hundred dollars for each violation, up to a cumulative $10,000. While disciplinary discretion can look daunting, our attorneys may be able to turn that discretion in your favor, arguing for remedial rather than punitive measures. Even if you did something wrong, we may be able to negotiate additional training or education, supervision, mentoring, counseling, or another form of relief that you are readily able to complete or have already completed.
Premier Insurance License Defense Attorneys
If you face Louisiana Department of Insurance license disciplinary charges, retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for your best outcome. Our attorneys help hundreds of insurance brokers, agents, adjusters, and other professionals across Louisiana and nationwide. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve and protect your valuable Louisiana insurance license and practice.
