What can you do to protect against identity theft issues while still cooperating with the insurance company's contractual right to investigate the insurance claim? When presented with a request for sensitive information from an insurance company you or your representative can:
- Reign in the scope of the request. Often, simply by communicating with the insurance company and engaging in a discussion over the scope and breadth of the items and information requested, one can narrow or limit the information that needs to be provided. In other words, why is all of this information really needed to process your insurance claim?
- The parties can enter into a confidentiality agreement wherein the insurance company agrees to not disclose any of the sensitive information to anyone but those necessarily involved in the insurance claim or litigation and agreeing not to make any of the information public including redacting all sensitive information from any court filings.
- If sensitive information is requested in the form of testimony during an examination under oath, sworn statement, recorded statement, or deposition, request to provide the information "off the record' so that there will not be a transcript floating around with your social secutity number, for example.
- If the case is in litigation consider asking the court for a protective order. This is a request to the court to enter an order limiting what information has to be turned over and seeking a ruling on how that information is going to be handled, stored, and disposed of.
These are just some of the things that you or your lawyer can do to protect against a policyholder's private information falling into the wrong hands while still cooperating with an insurance company claims investigation.
You can reach Insurance Claims Lawyer J.P. Gonzalez-Sirgo by dialing his direct number at (786) 272-5841, calling the main office at (305) 461-1095, or Toll Free at 1 (866) 71-CLAIM or email Attorney Gonzalez-Sirgo directly at [email protected].