Important Information Regarding Your Insurance “Credit Report”.
The CLUE report is the report most used by insurance companies to underwrite your insurance applications. In other words, if you have too many insurance claims, or false insurance claims, your CLUE report will prevent you from getting insurance, or at least prevent you from getting the best possible pricing for your insurance.
CLUE stands for “Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange”. This is a Lexis-Nexis product. In theory, it is a record of just about everyone’s insurance claims history, drawing information from many insurance companies.
This is your insurance “credit report”.
Like all credit reports (don’t we know!), it is subject to false and inaccurate credit reporting. So, false information about the number and nature of your insurance claims could prevent you from getting insurance at all. Particularly in the current environment—insurers pulling out altogether in Florida, insurers reluctant to write insurance in brushfire areas in California—you positively don’t want false or inaccurate information on your CLUE report. It’s hard enough to get insurance and it’s getting harder.
How to Order Your CLUE Report to Check for Accuracy
LexisNexis, Consumer Center
Request your personal report online (www.lexisnexis.com)
Call 866-312-8076
What To Do If Your CLUE Report Has False or Inaccurate Information About Your Insurance History
Lexis-Nexis has contact information to dispute false or inaccurate information. From the Lexis-Nexis website about CLUE reports:
You can check for inaccurate or unrelated information that could be making you pay higher premiums. If you find mistakes, contact LexisNexis Consumer Center at 888-497-0011. They’ll verify your information with the reporting insurance company and notify you of the results within 30 days. You can also add an explanation to an item in the report that will show in all future reports.
In addition, I always advise my clients to do their disputing—credit reports, CLUE reports, anything—in writing, certified mail. Lexis-Nexis will provide you the address for your dispute letter when you call them. As with disputes to the credit bureaus, include any evidence you have that the reporting is false. If it’s just your word against the insurance company that provided the information, Lexis-Nexis will usually take the side of the insurance company.
Do I Have Legal Remedies If Lexis-Nexis Does Not Correct the False Information?
Yes. You can pursue legal remedies under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, the California Consumer Credit Reporting Agencies Act and the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act. My office handles cases under all three laws. I am able to offer contingency or semi-contingency representation on many of my false credit reporting cases, and the same would hold true for false information on a CLUE report. However, I will have to see the evidence that the reporting is false or inaccurate before I would be willing to sign up the case.
You can get damages, including any financial damages, emotional distress damages and punitive damages, under these statutes, and these statutes provide that the insurance company and/or Lexis-Nexis would pay for your attorney’s fees if you win the case. So, there are damages to be had and these cases are usually affordable to pursue.
I hope this information helps.
Copyright © 2023 by Robert F. Brennan. All rights reserved.