The Business Of Insurance Is Subject To The Law Of Unintended Consequences As If It Were On Steroids


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The law of unintended consequences is not statutory. No state or federal government has enacted it into law. No executive has signed the law. It is, rather, a law of the nature of people. It is an adage or idiomatic warning that an intervention in a complex system always creates unanticipated and often undesirable outcomes.


General observation requires the hypothesis that actions of people, especially of governments, will always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended, has been proved. Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries. Regardless, for just as long, politicians, insurers and popular opinion have largely ignored the law of unintended consequences to their detriment.


Every court should be loathe to invent duties unmoored to any existing precedent.


Most often, however, the law of unintended consequences illuminates the perverse unanticipated effects of legislation, regulation and the decisions of appellate courts. In 1692 the English philosopher John Locke, a forerunner of modern economists, urged the defeat of a parliamentary bill designed to cut the maximum permissible rate of interest from 6 percent to 4 percent.


The law of unintended consequences provides the basis for many criticisms of government programs. So, a policy that protects one industry from foreign competition makes it harder for another industry to compete with imports.


(c) 2022 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.


Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 54 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and [email protected].


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