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Assertive Representation In State & Federal Court

Insurance fraud allegations can snag good people

On Behalf of | Nov 30, 2018 | White Collar Crimes

As is the case in other states, insurance fraud is a crime in Ohio that prosecutors and law enforcement officers, as well as insurance companies, will take very seriously.

All Cincinnati residents need to remember that insurance fraud is often a felony and, as such, can land a person in prison, even if that person simply a made a one-time error in judgment.

The definition of what constitutes insurance fraud in Ohio is quite broad. Fraud includes any outright lie one communicates to an insurance company, whether in the process of filing a claim or even in the process of applying for insurance coverage to begin with.

Fraud can occur even if other information provided was true, and it can also include so-called deceptive statements, which can even include material omissions in one’s application or claim. For example, someone who does not the number of accidents one has had when seeking automobile insurance may be criminally liable.

In practice, insurance fraud can snag even otherwise decent point who may be caught in what they thought was a white lie, socially accepted puffery or salesmanship or even just carelessness in one’s dealings with an insurance company.

In other words, insurance fraud is more than just staging accidents or burnings one’s house down to collect insurance. It can also include much more common practices like overstating one’s bills in the course of a claim. Not all bills are of course overstated on purpose, and, for those that are, it may have been a simple misunderstanding about how insurance works.

A person charged with insurance fraud under Ohio law must deal with such charges seriously, as they can cause tremendous damage to one’s personal and professional reputation even if jail happens to be off the table in a given case.

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