Rhode Island · Insurance Adjuster Sample Interactive Mind Map

Rhode Island Adjuster Regulations

A visual breakdown of the Rhode Island rules an adjuster is tested on — a state that hides its most expensive rules in unexpected titles.

Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country with one of the densest claims rulebooks in it, and it runs against the national grain in both directions at once. It gives nobody a private cause of action under the unfair claims act — then hands the insured a separate statute with punitive damages and attorney's fees written into its text. It adds 12% interest from the day of the loss, automatically, and lets that interest run above your policy limits. It uses pure comparative negligence, so a claimant 90% at fault still collects. Appraising auto physical damage needs a second license under a different chapter. And the passing score on the exam is scaled, not a percentage. This map lays out each of those.

So explore it. Click through the clusters, then take the scenario quiz at the end and see how many of Rhode Island's departures from the national rule you can hold onto.

Explore by topic

Choose a Cluster to Study

Three license types, three lines of authority — and a fourth credential hiding in a different chapter.
§ 27-10-1.1 defines an adjuster as “an individual licensed as either a public, company, or independent adjuster.” Company and independent adjusters choose lines; public adjusters carry none.

Credential	Lines of authority	Fee
Company adjuster — employee	Property & casualty · Workers' comp · Crop	$250
Independent adjuster — contractor	same three	$250
Public adjuster — represents the insured	none	$250
Emergency adjuster (temporary)	none	$0
Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser — ch. 27-10.1	separate license	$150

Workers' compensation is a LINE, not a separate licensethe appraiser license is a genuinely separate chapter

🚗

Auto physical damage requires a SECOND license — under a different chapter

§ 27-10.1-1(a): “No person shall act as an appraiser for motor vehicle physical damage claims on behalf of any insurance company or firm or corporation engaged in the adjustment or appraisal of motor vehicle claims unless that person has first secured a license from the insurance commissioner.”

$150, its own Pearson VUE exam (code 38 — 40 questions in 45 minutes), its own regulation, and a 120-day emergency version rather than the adjuster's 90.

Yes, you need both. The statute is written as an absolute prohibition aimed at people appraising for insurers and adjusting firms, and neither ch. 27-10.1 nor its regulation contains any exemption for licensed adjusters — nor does § 27-10-2 carve out appraisers. Many Rhode Island auto adjusters hold both to handle a claim end to end.

§ 27-10.1-3 adds two more: appraisers must “operate separate and apart from any body repair shop” and keep a permanent address open to the public during business hours.

✅ The exemptions — § 27-10-2 has THIRTEEN

📌 Read the wording closely

Attorneys

“admitted to practice in this state”

In-state only

An out-of-state attorney adjusting a Rhode Island loss is not exempt

Self-insured employees

“An individual employee, under a self-insured arrangement, who adjusts claims on behalf of their employer”

“Salaried” is NOT in this statute

Many states hang the company-adjuster exemption on “salaried employee.” Rhode Island's turns on employment status, not compensation structure — and RI does license company adjusters

Fact-gatherers

Employed only to obtain facts or furnish technical assistance — photographers, estimators, engineers

Fraud investigators

Exempt only if they do not adjust losses or determine claim payments

📑

Public Adjusters — No Bond, No Auto, Three Days to Rescind

Rhode Island did not adopt the NAIC model in any recognizable form

Bond: NONE. No bond or surety requirement anywhere in ch. 27-10 or the regulation — unusual, and a real departure from the model act
Fee cap: 10%, but only in the catastrophic-disaster context. There is no general percentage cap on ordinary claims
Right to cancel: 3 business days, with anything of value returned within 15 business days
No advance fees — nothing of value “prior to settlement of a claim”; and the 72-hour rule bars a percentage fee where the insurer pays or commits within 72 hours of the loss being reported
Scope excludes automobile, life, and accident & health — written into the definition itself
Contract in writing and duplicate carrying the license number; trust account for client funds; written disclosure of financial interests in repair, salvage or appraisal firms; and an insured-signed notification letter to the insurer

🌪️

Emergency adjusters — 90 days, no fee, no exam, and two hard limits

§ 27-10-8 licenses “A person who is otherwise qualified to adjust claims, but not already licensed in this state” for a period “not to exceed ninety (90) days, unless extended by the department,” and “There is no fee payable to the state.” No examination requirement. Application filed within 5 days of deployment.

Limit one: a declaration is a prerequisite. The license attaches to a “catastrophic disaster” — an event overwhelming response resources, declared by the U.S. President, the Governor, or the Insurance Commissioner. Not available for a busy storm season without one.

Limit two: public adjusters are categorically ineligible. § 27-10-8 says so in terms. And emergency adjusters are subject to all Rhode Island laws as fully licensed adjusters — the short path in does not shorten the obligations once you are here.

Eight states cannot be your Designated Home State — for two different reasonsDBR will not accept AZ, CA, HI, IA, NY, OR, SC or VT. But the usual explanation — “these states do not license adjusters” — is wrong. California, Hawaii and New York DO license adjusters; they are simply not reciprocal with Rhode Island. Arizona, Iowa, Oregon, South Carolina and Vermont “do not give their state's DHS status to anyone,” so there is nothing to recognize. Only company and independent adjusters may designate RI — and doing so requires taking the Rhode Island exam.

Four exams, a scaled score, and a continuing-education requirement that did not exist three years ago.
No prelicensing course. Test center only. And the CE trigger is your expiration date, not a calendar cutover — which catches adjusters who have been licensed for years under a no-CE regime.

Code	Examination	Scored	Time
14	Property/Casualty Adjuster	35 (+5 pretest)	1 hour
17	Public Adjuster	50	1 hour
18	Workers Compensation Adjuster	50	1 hour
38	Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser (separate license)	40	45 min

$80 per attempt · test center ONLY · 24-hour retake waitquestion counts live in the Content Outlines, not the handbook

🔢

70 is a SCALED score — it is not 70% correct

The handbook is unambiguous: “Raw scores are converted into scaled scores that can range from 0 to 100. … The scaled score that is reported to you is neither the number of questions you answered correctly nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly. With a passing score of 70, any score below 70 indicates how close the candidate came to passing, rather than the actual number or percentage of questions the candidates answered correctly.”

Multiple forms of each exam exist, and a statistical procedure called equating corrects for differences in form difficulty. So do not compute “70% of 35” and aim for 25 correct — that arithmetic means nothing here.

One more quirk worth knowing: passing candidates receive only “pass,” with no number at all. Only failing candidates get a score, and it exists to tell them how close they came.

Test center only — there is no online optionRhode Island offers no online or remote-proctored delivery for insurance exams. The handbook describes test-center delivery throughout, candidates report “at least thirty (30) minutes before the examination,” and “Walk-in examinations are not available.” Bring two forms of current signature ID, the primary one government-issued with a photo. No prelicensing education is required, and no professional designation waives the exam — the only exemptions are an active resident adjuster license in another state, a nonresident moving to RI who applies within 90 days, or reinstatement within 12 months.

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Fees, Renewal, and the Background Check That Costs $5

Sequence matters — the BCI expires in thirty days

$250 biennial license, resident or nonresident — the same either way. MVDA $150. Emergency adjuster $0
Late renewal adds $50 — which is why NIPR displays $300. It is not a standalone $300 charge
Reinstate within 12 months of the due date “without the necessity of passing a written examination.” Past twelve months, you retest
Biennial and NOT prorated — a license issued mid-term expires with the term. “The Department does not prorate license fees”
Renewals route through the RI Division of Taxation for tax clearance before DBR approves — build in time

The BCI costs $5, not $45The Attorney General sells two products: a name-based state check at $5.00 (RI records only, no fingerprints) and a fingerprint-based national check at $45.00. DBR asks for “a B.C.I. (State Background Check),” which maps to the $5 product — and Rhode Island imposes no fingerprint requirement anywhere in ch. 27-10 or the regulation. The $45 figure on prep sites is the national check RI does not require. And DBR will not accept a BCI more than 30 days old, so sequence it: exam → BCI → application, immediately.

📚

Continuing education is new — and the effective date is usually stated wrong

For decades this license carried no CE at all. 230-RICR-20-50-4.9, added effective May 28, 2024, requires “a minimum of twenty-four (24) hours of continuing education courses, of which three (3) hours must be in ethics, every two years” — DBR states the split as 21 general + 3 ethics.

You will see this described as effective “January 1, 2026.” No official Rhode Island source uses that date. DBR Bulletin 2024-7 applies it to licensees “with a license expiration date of 2026 and thereafter” — so the trigger is when your license expires. Someone expiring in March 2026 is fully covered.

Two exemptions only: someone not licensed for one full year before the end of the biennium, and a nonresident who met their home state's CE where that state reciprocates. That second one does NOT rescue a designated-home-state holder — Rhode Island IS their home state.

And a live compliance risk: NIPR's Rhode Island adjuster page still lists no CE requirement at all, contradicting the regulation, the bulletin, and DBR's own FAQ. Trust DBR and the RICR. There is no carryover, and appraisers are exempt.

Three duties that get licenses revoked without a single mishandled claimRecords: five years after the transaction terminates, open to Department examination at all times. · Report within 30 days a change of address, legal name, or application information — and notify immediately of any action against your adjuster license in another state. · And the one nobody outside Rhode Island knows: reg 4.10(A)(5) requires that “Every adjuster, upon receipt of any written inquiry (including electronic communications) from the Department, shall within 21 calendar days of receipt … furnish the Department with a response in duplicate.” It reaches email, runs on calendar days, and is independently revocable.

⚖️

Nobody has a private right of action under the unfair claims act — § 27-9.1-1

“Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to create or imply a private cause of action for violation of this chapter.” The regulation repeats it at 230-RICR-20-40-2.2.

Great American E&S Ins. Co. v. End Zone Pub & Grill of Narragansett, Inc. (R.I. June 22, 2012): “The act, upon which defendant relies, does not provide him with a private cause of action.”

No subsection is privately actionable. The bar is chapter-wide and unqualified — it does not carve out first-party insureds, and it does not carve out the auto-body subsections. Enforcement runs exclusively through the Director: up to $10,000 per violation / $100,000 aggregate, rising to $25,000 / $250,000 for flagrant violations.

But the Commissioner's findings are not a dead end — they can be used as evidence in a § 9-1-33 bad faith action.

The threshold is DISJUNCTIVE — one flagrant act is enough§ 27-9.1-3: it is an improper claims practice to commit any act defined in § 27-9.1-4 if “(1) It is committed flagrantly and in conscious disregard of this chapter … or (2) It has been committed with a frequency as to indicate a general business practice.” National material teaches that a violation always requires a pattern. That is wrong for Rhode Island — a single, isolated act violates the act on track (1). One egregious file is enough.

🔒 What Rhode Island takes AWAY

No private action under the unfair claims act — first party or third party

Third-party claimants have no § 9-1-33 claim either — they are not an “insured”

No general interest penalty on a late property or casualty claim payment. No P&C prompt-pay statute

Punitive damages generally require conduct “as amount[s] to criminality” — among the strictest standards in the country

📈 What it GIVES BACK

§ 9-1-33 — a statutory bad faith action with compensatory, punitive, AND attorney's fees written into the text

Asermely — reject a within-limits demand and the insurer owes the entire excess judgment

12% interest from the date of accrual, added automatically by the clerk, on the whole verdict

§ 27-7-2.2 — that interest can be owed above your policy limits

Third parties reach you by assignment of the insured's claim — Stricklett

⚖️

§ 9-1-33 — The Statutory Bad Faith Action

One paragraph from 1981, never amended, and everything else is judicial construction

Who may sue: “an insured under any insurance policy” — first party only
Remedies, straight from the statute: “an insured may also make claim for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and reasonable attorney fees”
The standard — Skaling v. Aetna (R.I. 2002). Either “an absence of a reasonable basis in law or fact for denying the claim” or “an intentional or reckless failure to properly investigate the claim and subject the result to cognitive evaluation”
“Fairly debatable” is a defense but NOT absolute. An insurer may litigate a debatable claim — but must do so ethically, and reckless or oppressive claim-handling tactics can support bad faith even on a debatable claim
Skaling superseded the stricter earlier standard associated with Bartlett (1988) — older compendia still recite it

Punitive damages are written into the cause of actionIn most states punitive damages in a bad faith case are a common-law overlay. In Rhode Island the legislature put them inside the statute, alongside attorney's fees. That is why the “no private right of action” headline is so misleading on its own — the remedy did not disappear, it moved to Title 9.

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Asermely — the most expensive rule in the state

Asermely v. Allstate Insurance Co., 728 A.2d 461 (R.I. 1999):
“If the insurer declines to settle the case within the policy limits, it does so at its peril in the event that a trial results in a judgment that exceeds the policy limits.”

If the judgment is sustained or unappealed, “the insurer is liable for the amount that exceeds the policy limits, unless it can show that the insured was unwilling to accept the offer.”

Two things to hold onto. The duty runs to the insured and to an assignee of the insured's rights. And the burden is on the insurer to prove the insured refused — not on the claimant to prove they did not.

Combine that with Stricklett (2019), which lets a third party proceed on assigned extracontractual rights, and the Rhode Island pattern is standard: reject a within-limits demand, take an excess verdict, and the insured assigns the claim in exchange for a covenant not to execute. A within-limits demand deserves a documented, good-faith evaluation even though the claimant cannot sue you directly.

Cite-check everything in this chapterThe unfair claims list runs to § 27-9.1-4(a)(33). The free codification mirrors stop at (a)(30) with pre-2024 numbering, so any subsection cite above (a)(22) from a pre-2025 source is presumptively wrong by one. Rhode Island amended this section in four consecutive sessions — 2023, 2024, 2025 and again by regulation in 2026. Use the General Assembly's own server.

230-RICR-20-40-2 — current effective date 02/27/2026.
Scope matters before any number does: this regulation covers property and casualty claims and expressly does not apply to workers' compensation, fidelity, suretyship, or boiler and machinery.

Duty	Deadline	Scope
Acknowledge notification of claim, in writing	15 days	unless payment is made within that period
Provide claim forms, instructions, assistance	15 days	reg 2.6(F)
Provide claim forms on request	10 calendar days	statutory — § 27-9.1-4(a)(13)
Reply to other pertinent communications	15 days	all claimants
Respond to a Department inquiry	21 days	reg 2.6
Begin investigation	no deadline	the Life/A&H rule has one; P&C does not
Affirm or deny	21 days	after properly executed proofs of loss — FIRST PARTY ONLY
Continuing-investigation letters	then every 45 days	no outer cap on the cycle
Pay undisputed claims	30 days	from affirmation of liability — not from proof of loss
Limitations warning — first party	30 days	before expiry, unrepresented claimant
Limitations warning — third party	60 calendar days	before expiry, unrepresented claimant

working / business dayscalendar days and no-deadline items

⏰

There is no single “30 days to pay or deny” — there are two clocks with different triggers

Step 1 — reg 2.7(A): advise the first-party claimant of acceptance or denial within 21 days after receipt of properly executed proofs of loss. The denial must be in writing with specific policy-provision references and documented in the file. Extendable only where fraud is suspected with specific supporting information, and then only to “a reasonable time for full investigation.”

Step 2 — reg 2.7(F): “tender payment of all claims in which damages are not in dispute within thirty (30) days of affirmation of liability.”

The 30 days runs from affirmation of liability — never from notice of loss, never from proof of loss.

And know that a genuine tension exists: § 27-9.1-4(a)(16) says 30 days to “respond to a claim” while the regulation says 21 days to affirm or deny. No case law reconciles them. Work to 21 days — it is the shorter and more specific.

✉️

You must warn an unrepresented claimant that their time to sue is running out

Reg 2.7(D) requires written notice to an unrepresented claimant that the limitations period may be expiring — at least 30 days ahead for a first-party claimant, and at least 60 calendar days ahead for a third-party claimant.

Note the counterintuitive shape: the duty owed to the adverse third-party claimant is the LONGER one. Very few states impose this at all.

And it has a companion: § 27-9.1-4(a)(15) separately makes misleading a claimant as to the applicable statute of limitations an unfair claims practice in its own right.

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12% From the Date of the Crash — Added Automatically

§ 9-21-10, and it is the reason delay is expensive in Rhode Island

“there shall be added by the clerk of the court to the amount of damages interest at the rate of twelve percent (12%) per annum thereon from the date the cause of action accrued”
12% simple, from the date of accrual — the crash. Not from filing, not from demand
Mandatory and automatic. No demand, no request, no jury involvement — the clerk adds it
It attaches to the entire pecuniary verdict, pain and suffering included
Post-judgment interest is also 12%, accruing on the principal and the prejudgment interest already added
A three-year-old case carries roughly 36% on top of the verdict before an appeal even starts

And the interest can pierce your policy limits§ 27-7-2.2: where the plaintiff makes a written settlement offer within policy limits and the insurer rejects it or fails to respond within 30 days, “the defendant's insurer shall be liable for all interest due on the judgment entered by the court even if the payment of the judgment and interest totals a sum in excess of the policy coverage limitation.” Read that alongside Asermely and the message arrives twice: in Rhode Island, sitting on a within-limits demand is the expensive choice.

Deadlines that do NOT exist — and one set that does not travelNo begin-investigation deadline for P&C. No complete-investigation deadline. No outer cap on the extension cycle — an insurer may extend indefinitely by sending 45-day letters; what it cannot do is go quiet. No P&C prompt-pay statute and no interest penalty on a late claim payment. And do not carry the Life/A&H numbers across — that regulation runs acknowledge 15, begin investigation 15, affirm or deny 30. An adjuster using that set on a property file blows the 21-day mark.

Pure comparative negligence. A statutory fire policy. A matching rule with real teeth. And a workers' compensation COURT.
Rhode Island puts its rules in unexpected titles — the criminal fraud statute is in the larceny chapter, the cancellation rules are in the policy form, and the bad faith remedy is in Title 9.

🚗 Automobile

🏠 Property

Limits & system

25/50/25 or $75,000 CSL. A tort state — despite the chapter being named the “Motor Vehicle Reparations Act,” which is no-fault vocabulary elsewhere

Standard fire policy

Rhode Island mandates one — § 27-5-3 enacts the full 165-line form into the statute. A variant of the NY form, but 24 months to sue (not 12) and 30/10-day termination notice (not 5)

UM and UIM

ONE coverage — “'uninsured motorist' shall include an underinsured motorist.” The trigger is damages-based: “less than the limits or damages” the insured is entitled to recover

Valued policy law

NONE. The standard fire policy imposes actual cash value indemnity. Regional trap — Massachusetts and New Hampshire ARE valued policy states

Stacking

Compelled by statute where two or more premiums were paid, “regardless of any language in the policy to the contrary” — anti-stacking endorsements are void

Late proof of loss

Notice-prejudice state. Avco v. Aetna: it is “the insurance carrier's burden to show that it was prejudiced” before declaring a forfeiture

Comparative negligence

PURE. No 50% or 51% bar — a plaintiff 90% at fault recovers 10%. And “open and obvious” is not a complete defense

ACV

Replacement cost less depreciation by regulation — not market value or broad evidence. And the depreciation worksheet is disclosable on the claimant's request

Direct action

Rhode Island HAS one — §§ 27-7-1 and 27-7-2, where the insured cannot be found, dies, or after judgment. Not just Louisiana and Wisconsin

Property damage SOL

TEN YEARS. § 9-1-14's three years reaches only “injuries to the person” — property damage falls into the § 9-1-13(a) catch-all

🧩

Matching — one of the strongest rules in the country

230-RICR-20-40-2.9(A)(1)(b): “When a loss requires replacement of items and the replaced items do not match in quality, color or size, the insurer shall replace all such items so as to conform to a reasonably uniform appearance. This applies to interior and exterior losses. The first party claimant shall not bear any cost over the applicable deductible, if any.”

And 2.9(A)(1)(a) adds that consequential physical damage from making the repair is part of the loss, and “The first party claimant shall not have to pay for betterment nor any other cost except for the applicable deductible.”

Four things make this unusually strong: it says interior AND exterior expressly, so flooring, cabinetry, tile and trim are in scope; there is no betterment charge and no proration; damage caused by the repair itself is included; and the test is appearance, not functional equivalence.

One honest limit: § 2.9 is anchored to policies settling on a replacement-cost basis. Its application to a pure ACV policy is unresolved. (And if you see this cited as “Regulation 73” — that is the superseded pre-RICR designation for the same rule.)

The 2025 loser-pays appraisal reform is MOTOR VEHICLE ONLY — the most likely update error in the stateCh. 27-10.4, rewritten effective 7/2/2025, gives auto claims a 4-business-day inspection clock (miss it and “the insurer shall forfeit its right to inspect”), an automatic 15% midpoint rule, and 25% loser-pays. None of it reaches property. Property appraisal runs on § 27-5-3, under which “Each appraiser shall be paid by the party selecting him or her and the expenses of appraisal and the umpire shall be paid by the parties equally” — regardless of outcome. Property appraisal is also compulsory (Hahn) and treated as arbitration under the RI Arbitration Act (Waradzin), so award challenges run on a “reasonable impression of partiality” standard.

Guaranty — RIPCIGA, and four numbers that differ from the model$500,000 per claimant · $1,000,000 per OCCURRENCE for first-party property, new as of 1/1/2026 — note the unit of measure changes · NO per-claim deductible (Rhode Island never adopted the NAIC $100) · unearned premium $10,000 per policy · workers' compensation uncapped · net worth exclusion $50 million with a clawback reaching amounts already paid “whether for indemnity, defense, or otherwise.” Flood and surplus lines get no protection at all, and for property claims the trigger is the situs of the property, not the owner's residence. And it is not called an “insolvency fund” — that is Massachusetts.

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Fraud — three regimes, no single bureau, and no deadline

The criminal statute is not in the insurance code. Ch. 27-54.1, the Anti-Fraud Act, is administrative only. The criminal claim-fraud statute is § 11-41-29, in the LARCENY chapter of Title 11 — and § 11-41-29(b)(4) criminalizes insurer-side claim fraud symmetrically, deeming an insurer that presents a false statement to a claimant in support of contesting a claim guilty of larceny. Meanwhile ch. 27-54, despite being titled the “Insurance Fraud Prevention Act,” is a solvency statute with nothing to do with claimants.

Reporting is mandatory — but there is no single fraud bureau, and it is NOT the Attorney General. Auto fraud goes to the Office of Automobile Theft and Insurance Fraud inside the RHODE ISLAND STATE POLICE; fire losses to the State Fire Marshal; workers' compensation to the DLT Fraud Prevention Unit; and DBR is the residual catch-all.

There is NO reporting deadline in days. National courses routinely assert 30 or 60. Rhode Island has none — but the duty is still mandatory.

And there is no general immunity. Ch. 27-54.1 has no immunity section at all; protection is line-specific — auto and workers' comp — and attaches only to factually accurate information supplied in good faith.

The fraud warning: required, prescribed, and its absence is not a defense§§ 27-29-13.3 and 27-54.1-3 both require, on every claim form AND every application, “regardless of the form of transmission”: “Any person who knowingly presents a false or fraudulent claim for payment of a loss or benefit or knowingly presents false information in an application for insurance is guilty of a crime and may be subject to fines and confinement in prison.” Mandatory — but “a substantially similar statement” is permitted, so it is not character-for-character. Exempt: reinsurance, CMS/HIPAA health forms, and workers' compensation, which uses a different Title 28 device. And the trap: § 27-54.1-3(b) — “The absence of a statement required in this section does not constitute a defense in any prosecution for a fraudulent insurance act.” Also note there is no antifraud plan filing requirement, and the SIU and the plan are alternatives, not both.

⚖️

Workers' Compensation Goes to a COURT — and There Is No Notice of Controversion

§ 28-30-1 — “a court of record,” nine associate judges, RI Rules of Evidence at trial

There is no administrative form you file to deny or stop benefits. The old 21-day pay-or-contest rule applies only to injuries on or before February 28, 1986 and is dead law
Accept → file a memorandum of agreement within 10 days of the initial payment, by certified mail RRR
Pay without prejudice → up to 13 weeks. One day past that is “a conclusive admission of liability and ongoing incapacity”
Deny → there is no form. The employee files a Petition for Determination of Controversy. Pretrial in 21 days, payment ordered within 14 days, and 5 business days to claim a trial de novo or the order becomes a final decree
Once a memorandum or decree exists you cannot unilaterally terminate or reduce — you need a signed suspension agreement or a petition to review

Paying without filing a memorandum is catastrophic§ 28-35-9 makes it “a conclusive admission of liability and ongoing incapacity,” the carrier gets NO CREDIT for what it paid, and “the employer or insurer shall not file a petition to suspend or reduce payments until a memorandum has been filed.” Then § 28-35-57(c) provides that where compensation was paid without the required filings, “the claimant's right to file a petition … shall be preserved without time limitation.” You have admitted liability, forfeited credit for every dollar paid, lost the ability to petition to suspend, and made the claim immortal.

Workers' compensation numbers	Rhode Island	The trap
Total incapacity rate	62% of AWW	Not 66⅔. Injuries on/before 12/31/2021 use 75% of spendable after-tax wages
Maximum weekly rate	$1,622.00	effective 10/1/2025; adjusts every October 1
Minimum weekly rate	NONE	the $90/$45 figures belong to scheduled injuries, not indemnity
Waiting period	3 days	Retroactive period: NONE. The first three days are never paid back
Partial incapacity cap	312 weeks	70% of the rate at MMI, and 26 weeks' notice before expiry or you owe 26 more
First report of injury	10 days	48 HOURS if fatal
Claim limitations	2 years	and 10 years after compensation ceases to petition for review
Late payment penalties	10% / 20%	all keyed to 14 days; conclusive presumption of fault after two prior late payments in a year

Burial $20,000 — among the highest in the countrysurviving spouse gets a flat 4% annual escalator, not CPI

WC medical: free FIRST choice, then channeled — and a 15-day forfeiture most adjusters never look for§ 28-33-8: “An injured employee shall initially have freedom of choice to obtain health care … from any qualified healthcare provider” — but if the employer maintains an approved preferred provider network, subsequent changes must be made within it. Rhode Island is neither a pure employee-choice state nor an employer-directed state. Contracts restricting the first choice or a provider's referral ability are void as against public policy. And the tool: the provider must give written notice of the employee's choice within 15 days of beginning treatment — failure forfeits the provider's right to payment, and the employee owes nothing. Managed care is voluntary and requires approval of both the DLT and DBR directors.

Ten scenarios — each one a place Rhode Island departs from the national rule.
Read the fact pattern before the options. Most of these have a plausible wrong answer that is simply the majority rule somewhere else.

🎯

Top Exam Tips — Rhode Island Adjuster Regulations

1. Three license types — company, independent, public — and three lines: property and casualty, workers' compensation, crop. WC is a line, not a separate license.
2. Auto physical damage needs a SECOND license under ch. 27-10.1 — $150, its own exam, no exemption for licensed adjusters.
3. 70 is a SCALED score, expressly not a percentage — and passing candidates get no number at all.
4. CE is new: 24 hours (21 + 3 ethics), triggered by license expirations in 2026 and after, not by a January 1 cutover.
5. No private right of action under the unfair claims act — for anyone. But § 9-1-33 gives the insured punitive damages and attorney's fees by statute.
6. The unfair claims threshold is disjunctive — a single flagrant act in conscious disregard is enough.
7. Asermely: reject a within-limits demand and you owe the entire excess judgment, with the burden on you to show the insured refused.
8. 12% interest from the date of accrual, added automatically by the clerk — and § 27-7-2.2 lets it run above policy limits.
9. 21 days to affirm or deny after proper proofs of loss (first party only), then 30 days to pay from affirmation of liability. Not one 30-day clock.
10. SOL warnings: 30 days first party, 60 days third party — the longer duty runs to the adverse claimant.
11. PURE comparative negligence — no bar at all — and no seat-belt defense.
12. The standard fire policy gives 24 months to sue, and Rhode Island is a notice-prejudice state.
13. Matching: reasonably uniform appearance, interior AND exterior, nothing above the deductible.
14. The 2025 loser-pays appraisal rules are motor vehicle only — property appraisal splits the umpire 50/50 regardless of outcome.
15. WC: a court, not a commission. No notice of controversion; 3-day wait with NO retroactive payback; and paying without filing a memorandum makes the claim immortal.

§ 27-10-5

The three lines of authority — property and casualty, workers' compensation, crop. Public adjusters carry none.

Ch. 27-10.1

Motor Vehicle Damage Appraiser — a separate license, $150, own exam, that an auto adjuster needs in addition to the adjuster license.

§ 27-10-8

Emergency adjuster — 90 days, no fee, no exam, filed within 5 days, requires a declared catastrophe; public adjusters ineligible.

Scaled 70

The passing score is a scaled score on a 0–100 scale, “neither the number … nor the percentage of questions you answered correctly.”

230-RICR-20-50-4.9

Continuing education — 24 hours / 2 years, 3 in ethics, for license expirations in 2026 and after. No carryover.

Reg 4.10(A)(5)

21 calendar days to answer any written Department inquiry, in duplicate — and it reaches email. Independently revocable.

§ 27-9.1-3

The disjunctive threshold — one flagrant act in conscious disregard, or a general business practice.

§ 27-9.1-1

“Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to create or imply a private cause of action” — no private UCSPA suit for anyone.

§ 9-1-33

The statutory bad faith action — compensatory, punitive, and attorney's fees written into the statute. First party only.

Skaling (2002)

The standard: no reasonable basis in law or fact, or an intentional or reckless failure to investigate. Superseded the stricter Bartlett rule.

Asermely (1999)

Reject a within-limits demand and the insurer owes the entire excess judgment — with the burden on the insurer to show the insured was unwilling to settle.

§ 9-21-10

12% interest per annum from the date the cause of action accrued, “added by the clerk of the court” — automatic, on the entire verdict.

§ 27-7-2.2

Interest owed “even if the payment of the judgment and interest totals a sum in excess of the policy coverage limitation” where a within-limits offer is ignored 30 days.

Reg 2.7(A) and 2.7(F)

Two clocks — 21 days to affirm or deny after proper proofs of loss, then 30 days to pay from affirmation of liability.

Reg 2.7(D)

The limitations warning letters — 30 days first party, 60 calendar days third party, to unrepresented claimants.

§ 9-20-4

Pure comparative negligence — no bar — and “the fact that the danger or defect was open and obvious shall not bar a recovery.”

§ 27-5-3

The statutory standard fire policy — 24 months to sue, 60-day proof of loss, 30/10-day termination notice, and a binding appraisal clause.

230-RICR-20-40-2.9(A)(1)(b)

Matching — “a reasonably uniform appearance … interior and exterior … shall not bear any cost over the applicable deductible.”

Ch. 27-10.4

The motor vehicle appraisal statute — 4 business days, 15% midpoint, 25% loser-pays. Does not reach property.

RIPCIGA (ch. 27-34)

$500,000 per claimant · $1,000,000 per occurrence first-party property · no deductible · $50M net worth with clawback.

§ 11-41-29

The criminal insurance fraud statute — in the larceny chapter of Title 11, and it criminalizes insurer-side claim fraud too.

§ 27-54.1-3

The prescribed fraud warning on every claim form and application — and its absence is expressly not a defense.

§ 28-35-9

Paying workers' comp without filing a memorandum — conclusive admission of liability, no credit for payments, no petition to suspend.

§ 28-33-4

3-day waiting period with NO retroactive payback. The first three days are never paid, however long the disability lasts.

§ 28-33-8

WC medical — free first choice, then channeled into the network; and the 15-day provider notice or the bill is forfeited.

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