While wildfires continue to devastate California, the Department of Insurance published a notice reminding all licensed public adjusters of the laws governing how they may contact policyholders following a disaster.

Anyone providing public adjusting services must have a public insurance adjuster licensed with the California DOI. Public adjusters may not solicit business or contact policyholders at certain times after a disaster has occurred. They are prohibited from soliciting business from disaster victims until 7 days after the disaster has ended. They also may not make contact between 6 PM and 8 AM unless given permission by the policyholder.

In addition, public adjusters may not solicit business from disaster victims while an evacuation order is in effect. When the disaster is considered catastrophic, as is the case now, adjusters cannot solicit business until 7 days after the conclusion of the evacuation order. Currently, most impacted areas still have evacuation orders in effect, so the waiting period has not begun yet.