Get the fair value you deserve for your totaled vehicle in Wyoming

Wyoming regulates first-party automobile total losses through three layered authorities: the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices statute at Wyo. Stat. § 26-13-124, the prompt-payment and attorney-fee statute at § 26-15-124, and the salvage / total-loss definition at § 31-2-106(v). Under Wyo. Stat. § 26-13-124(a), a person engages in an unfair method of competition and an unfair and deceptive act or practice in the business of insurance if that person commits or performs with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice any of the following: (i) misrepresenting pertinent facts or insurance policy provisions; (iv) refusing to pay claims without conducting a reasonable investigation based upon all available information; (v) failing to affirm or deny coverage of claims within a reasonable time after proof of loss statements have been completed; (vi) not attempting in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair and equitable settlements of claims in which liability has become reasonably clear; (vii) compelling insureds to institute litigation to recover amounts due under an insurance policy by offering substantially less than the amounts ultimately recovered in actions brought by such insureds; and (xiv) failing to promptly provide a reasonable explanation of the basis in the insurance policy in relation to the facts or applicable law for denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement. The Wyoming Supreme Court held in Herrig v. Herrig, 844 P.2d 487 (Wyo. 1992), that § 26-13-124 itself does not create a private right of action. However, the conduct proscribed by the statute is regularly admitted as evidence supporting common-law first-party bad-faith claims. The Wyoming Supreme Court has recognized first-party bad faith as an independent tort in cases such as McCullough v. Golden Rule Insurance Co., 789 P.2d 855 (Wyo. 1990). Wyo. Stat. § 26-15-124 supplies the most powerful direct remedy: subsection (b) requires that "claims for benefits under a property or casualty insurance policy shall be rejected or accepted and paid by the insurer or its agent designated to receive those claims within forty-five (45) days after receipt of the claim and supporting bills." Subsection (c) provides that "in any actions or proceedings commenced against any insurance company on any insurance policy or certificate of any type or kind of insurance ... if it is determined that the company refuses to pay the full amount of a loss covered by the policy and that the refusal is unreasonable or without cause, any court in which judgment is rendered for a claimant may also award a reasonable sum as an attorney's fee and interest at ten percent (10%) per year." Wyo. Stat. § 31-2-106(v) defines a "salvage vehicle" as one declared a total loss by an insurance company or, in the absence of insurance settlement, one where the cost of parts and labor to rebuild the motor vehicle to its pre-accident condition exceeds 75% of its actual retail cash value. Wyoming does not impose a separate licensing requirement on a policyholder's appraiser invoked under the policy's appraisal clause.

Wyoming's bad-faith doctrine sits at the intersection of statute and common law. In Herrig v. Herrig, 844 P.2d 487 (Wyo. 1992), the Wyoming Supreme Court held that Wyo. Stat. § 26-13-124 does not by itself create a private right of action — but the same opinion, and many that followed, confirm that the conduct proscribed by § 26-13-124 is admissible as evidence supporting common-law first-party bad-faith claims. The Wyoming Supreme Court recognized first-party bad faith as an independent tort in McCullough v. Golden Rule Insurance Co., 789 P.2d 855 (Wyo. 1990), holding that an insurer commits first-party bad faith when (1) the absence of any reasonable basis for denying the claim, and (2) the insurer's knowledge or reckless disregard of the lack of a reasonable basis for denying the claim, are established. Subsequent decisions including State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Shrader, 882 P.2d 813 (Wyo. 1994), refined this two-part test. Combined with the direct statutory remedy at § 26-15-124(c) — which awards reasonable attorney fees and 10% annual interest when an insurer's refusal to pay a covered loss is "unreasonable or without cause" — Wyoming offers a meaningful set of tools for a policyholder pushing back on a low total-loss valuation, even though the unfair-claims statute itself is enforced primarily through the Department of Insurance rather than a private cause of action.