Virginia Insurance Professional License Defense

Consider the enormous value of your Virginia insurance license when facing Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges. Virginia is a great state in which to maintain an insurance practice. According to National Association of Insurance Commissioners data, Virginia ranks in the top fifteen states nationally in total insurance premiums, title premiums, health premiums, automobile premiums, and surety premiums. Virginia's insurance business is rapidly growing, with total premiums nearly doubling over a little more than the past decade. Yet the Virginia Bureau of Insurance, author of your disciplinary charges, has the stated mission of ensuring that you and other producers “conduct their business according to statutory and regulatory requirements, as well as acceptable standards of conduct.” You could lose your license to Bureau of Insurance charges.

The Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team is ready to help you defend and defeat Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges. We serve Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Norfolk, Arlington, Richmond, Newport News, Alexandria, Hampton, Roanoke, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Lynchburg, Dale City, Centreville, Reston, Harrisonburg, and all other Virginia locations. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now to preserve and protect your valuable Virginia insurance practice. The following information shows how we can defend and defeat Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges.

Virginia Insurance Bureau Licensing Authority

The Virginia Bureau of Insurance with the Virginia State Corporations Commission is the licensing authority with which you must deal to protect your Virginia insurance license. Virginia Code Chapter 18 sets out the state's insurance producer licensing laws. Section 38.2-1809 of the Virginia insurance producer laws expressly vests in the Commission, and by implication its Bureau of Insurance, the power to investigate your conduct as an insurance agent to ensure that you comply with all standards the producer laws set forth. Do not ignore a Bureau of Insurance notice of disciplinary charges. Get our help answering and defending those charges.

Virginia Insurance Bureau License Requirement

You must not continue your Virginia insurance business if you lose your Bureau of Insurance license to disciplinary charges. Section 38.2-1822 of the Virginia insurance producer laws requires all insurance agents conducting business in the state to first obtain a license from the Commission's Bureau of Insurance. Other sections require licenses of insurance adjusters, consultants, and related insurance professionals. Section 38.2-1823 penalizes unlicensed practice with payment of a sum equal to the first year commission on any placed insurance business. Section 38.2-1823 further references and incorporates the general statute Section 38.2-218, providing additional penalties of a fine of $1,000 for each unlicensed insurance practice violation, up to $10,000 for a series of violations. Unlicensed insurance practice in violation of Section 38.2-1822 can, under Section 38.2-1831, lead the Bureau of Insurance to refuse to renew your license after its temporary suspension for misconduct. Don't risk losing your insurance practice and the severe penalties of unlicensed practice. Let us help you defend your license on disciplinary charges.

Virginia Discipline Multistate Licensure Issues

Your Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges carry nationwide insurance practice implications. If the Virginia Bureau of Insurance suspends or revokes your license, other state boards from which you hold a license may likewise suspend or revoke those licenses. Section 38.2-1831 of the Virginia insurance producer laws includes license discipline in another state as a ground to discipline your Virginia license. That provision is part of the Insurance Producers Model Act in place in many other states, making for reciprocal discipline among Model Act states. Lose your Virginia license, and you could lose all your other state insurance licenses. Lose your Virginia license, and you could also lose the ability to gain a new license in another state. Don't run from Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges. Instead, let us help you stand and fight those charges to preserve your ability to practice in Virginia and nationwide.

Virginia Insurance Producer Misconduct Risks

Virginia insurance business is highly technical and complex, creating significant risks of inadvertent regulatory violations. Your insurance customers also have significant insurable interests. Rightly or wrongly, they may blame you when they lose those interests for having failed to properly insure them. Virginia insurance practice is also highly competitive. Your competitors may be on the lookout for your unfair competition and trade practice violations. Virginia insurance practice can also be lucrative, with significant temptations to cut regulatory corners to increase premiums. Virginia insurance agents can handle very large customer sums, creating significant opportunities for misappropriation and conversion. Watch out for this potentially toxic regulatory mix. Let us help you defend false, unfair, or exaggerated disciplinary charges or charges that may have substantial merit. Just because you may have done something wrong does not mean that your conduct automatically warrants serious license discipline.

Virginia Insurance Producer Misconduct Types

The Insurance Producers Model Act, adopted in Virginia and many other states, reflects the types of misconduct that individuals commonly accuse Virginia insurance agents of. The Insurance Producers Model Act prohibits the following common forms of misconduct, for which Section 38.2-1831 of the Virginia insurance laws authorizes disciplinary charges:

Insurance Producer Fitness Issues

  • felony conviction for crimes related or unrelated to insurance practice;
  • discipline by an insurance board in another state or jurisdiction;
  • false statements on your insurance license application;
  • obtaining your insurance license through other credential fraud;
  • cheating on your insurance licensing exam by using unauthorized notes or other materials;
  • violating court child support orders; or
  • failing to pay state income taxes after an agency order to do so.

Insurance Producer Practice Issues

  • violating insurance statutes, rules, or standards;
  • disobeying an insurance commissioner order or subpoena in a license investigation or other matter;
  • violating a disciplinary sanction such as continuing your insurance practice after license suspension;
  • unfair competition, restraint of trade, or fraud in insurance business;
  • dishonest, untrustworthy, financially irresponsible, or incompetent insurance practice; or
  • unauthorized insurance business with an unlicensed individual outside authority.

Misconduct Involving Insurance Customer Interests

  • misappropriating, converting, or withholding funds or property handled in the course of insurance business;
  • intentionally misrepresenting the terms or conditions of an insurance contract or application;
  • falsifying an insurance application or
  • forging signatures on insurance applications or other insurance documents.

Section 38.2-1831 of Virginia's insurance producer laws further prohibits rebating and twisting practices, in the latter case referring to “inducing an insured to terminate an existing policy and purchase a new policy through misrepresentation.” Our highly qualified attorneys can help you defend any of the above types of disciplinary charges.

Virginia Insurance Bureau Reporting Duty

The obligation of the insurance entity for which you work to report or correct your suspected misconduct increases your risk of disciplinary charges and discipline. Section 38.2-1832 of the Virginia insurance producer laws provides that the Virginia Bureau of Insurance may revoke the business license of an insurance entity the owner or manager of which knows or should know of your violation of insurance rules or standards but fails to report or correct it. Section 38.2-1832 increases the likelihood that your entity owner, co-owner, or manager will report you to the Bureau of Insurance if believing that others may suffer harm or loss from your alleged misconduct or that disciplinary officials will otherwise learn of it and may pursue the business entity license. Let us help you address colleague or manager concerns over your conduct before those concerns ripen into a full-fledged complaint to the Virginia Bureau of Insurance.

Nature of Virginia Insurance Bureau Charges

Don't give up, throw in the towel, and assume that you will lose your license or suffer other embarrassing and damaging license discipline just because you receive a notice of disciplinary charges from the Virginia Bureau of Insurance. Disciplinary charges are only allegations, not findings. Virginia Bureau of Insurance officials have a responsibility to investigate customer and public complaints against their licensed agents. However, an investigation and charge doesn't necessarily mean that Bureau of Insurance officials believe that the allegations have merit or that they should impose discipline. Bureau officials may instead expect you to come forward with a credible and sound explanation for the allegations so that they don't have to impose discipline. Bureau officials take frequent regulatory actions against licensed agents and entities, as their published disciplinary action reports reflect. However, bureau officials also handle some disciplinary cases that result in the dismissal of the charges or only remedial measures rather than punitive sanctions like license suspension or revocation. Let us help make your disciplinary charges one of those later successful defense cases.

Defending Virginia Insurance Bureau Charges

Our attorneys have the substantial skill and experience to strategically and effectively pursue a wide range of potential defenses to your Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges. Those defenses generally fall into the following two categories.

Virginia Disciplinary Defenses Involving Complainant Credibility

Depending on your circumstances, we may be able to defend your disciplinary charges by challenging the credibility of complaining witnesses and their allegations. Customers who complain about their insurance agent don't necessarily know the agent's rules and standards. Customers make mistakes in their observations and in their interpretation of agent actions, duties, intentions, and motives. Customers can also have their own axe to grind and their own interests, in some cases leading to outright false allegations manufactured to serve the customer's own interests. Virginia Bureau of Insurance officials may also have based your charges on inadmissible hearsay or the false, erring, or manipulative allegations of a dishonest competitor or disaffected colleague.

Virginia Disciplinary Defenses Evaluating Your Actions

Whether your complaining parties make accurate allegations or not, we may alternatively be able to defend your Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges by showing that your actions complied with all rules and standards. We have consulting insurance witnesses available to us to evaluate your actions against insurance standards and opine as to their quality. You and your insurance colleagues may also do so under our direct examination when called as defense witnesses. Disciplinary cases often come down to close interpretations of rules and standards under special circumstances. You may have made a reasonable professional judgment as to the proper course for your actions under unusual or extraordinary circumstances. You may also have reasonably followed the advice or direction of an advisor, supervisor, or other trusted insurance professional. And if your actions caused no harm or loss against your long and clean record of valuable insurance services, we may be able to convince Bureau officials to forgo license discipline in favor of remedial measures, even if you did violate rules or standards.

Responding to Virginia Insurance Investigation

We may also be able to head off Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges at the investigation stage, even before you face formal charges. When you retain us as soon as learning of an investigation, we can help you make a truthful, accurate, complete, and comprehensive presentation of your reasons for acting as you did. That presentation may carry the day in convincing the investigator to forgo charges.

Virginia Insurance Department Procedures

Section 38.2-1832 of the Virginia insurance producer laws expressly guarantees you the right to request a formal hearing on your disciplinary charges. That provision and other protective procedures like fair and timely notice of the charges recognize your constitutional right to due process in a license disciplinary proceeding. We can invoke procedural rights and protections to present your defense and challenge the Bureau's adverse evidence at the hearing, appeal a Bureau decision if you have already lost your hearing, and seek judicial review available under Virginia's administrative procedures for contested agency cases.

Premier Virginia Insurance License Defense

If you face Virginia Bureau of Insurance disciplinary charges, your best move is to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Professional License Defense Team for our skilled, experienced, strategic, and effective representation. Our attorneys have successfully defended hundreds of insurance producers and other professionals across Virginia and nationwide in all kinds of disciplinary cases. Call 888.535.3686 or complete this contact form now for our help preserving your Virginia insurance license and protecting your Virginia insurance business.

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