Research Publications
Public Attitude Monitor 1992
This survey explores public attitudes on insurance fraud in workers' compensation and disability claims, affordability of auto insurance, effects of attorney advertising, traffic safety issues, earthquake risk, and other insurance topics.
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Estimated Cost of Compliance with 1991 Building Code Seismic Requirements
This report prepared by the National Association of Home Builders for IRC shows that builders can construct homes providing for life safety in earthquakes at an added cost of less than 1% of the purchase price of a new home.
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Catastrophic Auto Injuries
This survey of auto injury claims with unlimited no-fault medical benefits in Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania provides detailed claimant, accident, injury and payment data for 1,061 claims with expected total payments of $100,000 or more. In addition, the report documents changes in the reported expected value of these claims over time, and differences in claim characteristics from earlier samples of catastrophic PIP claims and a broader sample of PIP claims with all types of injuries.
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Small Business Attitude Monitor 1991
Surveys of small businesses released in 1991 and 1989 explore attitudes and beliefs about insurance-related topics as they apply to U.S. businesses having between 2 and 49 employees. Topics covered include insurance coverages held, shopping patterns, availability/cost of business insurance, and claim satisfaction. The more recent study also reports on perceptions about the relative costs of business insurance and attitudes and beliefs about fraudulent insurance claiming behaviors.
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A Comparative Study of Liability Law and Compensation Schemes in Ten Countries and the United States, Werner Pfennigstorf with Donald G. Gifford
This book compares principles and applications of liability law in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Foreign perspectives are provided by Werner Pfennigstorf, who served as research attorney and project director of the American Bar Foundation 1973-86 and now is in private law practice in the Federal Republic of Germany. American perspectives are provided by Donald G. Gifford, Dean of the College of Law, West Virginia University.
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Public Attitude Monitor 1991
This survey examines insurance fraud issues including: the acceptability of various activities in which some facts are misrepresented when filling out an auto insurance application or filing a claim, penalties by insurers and courts for various acts, ideas to reduce the number of dishonest claims, claim padding, and fraud in circumstances other than insurance. The survey also addresses public understanding of the workers' compensation system and the likelihood of hiring a lawyer in connection with a workers' compensation claim, acceptability of speeding and effectiveness of driver improvement courses, consumer confidence in the financial stability of a variety of industries, and views on the cost of auto insurance.
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Automobile Injury Claims in Hawaii
This closed claim study examines characteristics of 712 auto injury claims closed in 1990, documenting Hawaii's high attorney involvement and the use of lengthy medical treatments for neck and back sprains to defeat the state's $7,000 no-fault threshold.
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Medical Cost Containment in Casualty Claims
Rising medical costs are a major cause of higher insurance costs for workers' compensation, general liability and automobile insurance. This report explores medical cost containment techniques used by insurers of those coverages and offers an assessment of their effectiveness.
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Adequacy of Motor Vehicle Records in Evaluating Driver Performance
A survey of 27,627 reportable auto crashes in 40 states found only 40% of them were recorded on reports obtained from state motor vehicle departments, indicating millions of records cannot be obtained by employers and auto insurers to identify high-risk drivers. Results for each state and 26 major cities are reported.
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