Article 3. Procuring Information On Policies of California Insurance Code >> Division 3. >> Chapter 2. >> Article 3.

Any person interested as owner, assignee, pledgee or payee, of any policy and desiring any information about such policy, may apply to the commissioner for a certificate of the facts or information desired. Such application, filed in duplicate, shall be accompanied by an affidavit, in duplicate, showing his interest in the policy.

If the records of his office show the facts or information desired, the commissioner shall prepare his certificate reciting such facts or information. If his records do not show the facts or information desired, he may deliver or mail by certified mail an order to the insurer, directing it to state such information or facts in an affidavit and deliver such affidavit to him. If such insurer is a foreign insurer, the commissioner may deliver or mail by certified mail such order to its agent for service of process.

In such affidavit the insurer shall make a full, true and correct statement of all the desired facts and information in its possession, regardless of the location of its record of such information.

If such insurer neglects or refuses to make and deliver such affidavit to the commissioner within ninety days from the date of the delivery of the order by the commissioner to it or its agent for service of process, the commissioner shall revoke the certificate of authority of the insurer.

Immediately after receiving such affidavit from an insurer the commissioner shall certify such affidavit to the applicant. Such affidavit so certified by the commissioner shall be delivered to the applicant personally or by depositing it in the United States post office, addressed to the applicant, with postage prepaid thereon.

If a loss is sustained under a policy of insurance and such policy has been lost or destroyed, all rights of every kind and nature, the time for the presentation of notice of loss, and the time for the presentation of proof of loss are stayed from the date such applicant delivers to the commissioner the affidavit showing his interest until and after five days after the date of the delivery by the commissioner to the applicant of the affidavit furnished by the insurer.

Forms of policies filed with the commissioner and writings in respect thereto shall be open to public inspection except where, in his judgment, the public welfare or the welfare of any insurer demands that any portion thereof be not made public. In such cases he may withhold such information from public inspection for such time as in his judgment is necessary or advisable.

The commissioner shall not withdraw approval of a policy previously approved by him or her except upon those grounds as, in his or her opinion, would authorize disapproval upon original submission thereof. Any withdrawal of approval shall be in writing and shall specify the ground thereof. If the insurer demands a hearing on a withdrawal, the hearing shall be granted and commenced within 30 days of the filing of a written demand with the commissioner. Unless the hearing is commenced, the notice of withdrawal shall become ineffective upon the 31st day from and after the date of filing of the demand. This section shall not apply to policies subject to the provisions of subdivision (f) of Section 10291.5, or to policies, contracts, or agreements that were approved under an alternative filing and approval procedure as provided for in subdivision (f) of Section 10506.4 or subdivision (c) of Section 10507.5.

(a) On January 1, 1990, and on every January 1, thereafter, the commissioner shall publish and distribute a comparison of insurance rates report for those lines of insurance which, in the comissioner's judgment, are of most interest to individual purchasers of personal lines of coverage. The report shall be available to consumers. The distribution shall be designed to make consumers throughout the state aware of the content of the report. This report shall be prepared by the commissioner in a manner designed to provide information useful to consumers so that they may make informed comparisons of coverages and rates.
  (b) The submission of any false rate information by any such insurer pursuant to a request of the commissioner for the purpose of compiling comparative data for the report to be published as required in subdivision (a), shall be punishable by a civil penalty not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). Any person subject to regulation by the commissioner pursuant to this code that fails to comply with a data call required by the department pursuant to this section shall be liable to the state for a civil penalty in an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each 30-day period that the person is not in compliance, unless the failure to comply is willful, in which case the civil penalty shall be in an amount not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each 30-day period that the person is not in compliance, but not to exceed an aggregate amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). In determining the level of the penalty, the commissioner shall consider the good faith of the insurer and any similar prior violations by the insurer under this code.