New After Hours Emergency Claims Reporting Availability for SDPAA Members

By Judy Payne, Executive Director, SDPAA

Wouldn’t it be nice if emergency situations that often lead to claims confined themselves to the 8am to 5pm, Monday through Friday workweek? Although major fires, floods, severe weather events, and serious accidents can happen anytime, it seems they often occur in the middle of the night or on weekends. To make sure the needs of our Members are consistently met, the SDPAA has established an after-hours emergency reporting telephone number.

If an incident results in a fatality, serious bodily injury, or serious property damage, please call Claims Associates, Inc. immediately. During normal business hours call 888.613.7064. The after-hours emergency number is 888.430.2249. This number should be distributed to appropriate personnel within your entity.

The emergency after-hours number will route you to an answering service who will relay information to a member of the Claims Associates staff. Claims Associates will immediately make contact with you to assess the situation and offer assistance. In some cases, such as large property losses, it may be necessary to start clean-up or pursue other mitigation measures. The situation may be such that investigation should begin immediately. Whatever the case, please make the call so Claims Associates can help you, which ultimately helps all of the Members of the SDPAA.

We want to hear from you about serious situations, even if there is no immediate need for assistance or any “claim” being made. Events like serious car accidents, officerinvolved shootings, deaths or serious injuries occurring in jails, flooding from broken water mains, sewer backups, or brewing voter rights disputes often lead to claims. A good rule of thumb is: If the event is showing up in newspaper articles and local television newscasts, chances are claims are going to result. When these sorts of events occur, you might hear from us before any sort of claim or notice of a claim is made.

In our experience, the best possible time to investigate a serious situation and collect any important evidence is as close to the time of the event as possible. It might be months or even years before a claim is asserted. In the meantime, key personnel might have retired, taken other jobs, or even passed away. Important documents or other physical evidence can be lost. And even under the best of circumstances, memories fade and first impressions become jumbled. If a claim does arise, we are in the best position to deal with it because we spent the time to do the investigation when the situation was fresh. For these reasons, the SDPAA wants Claims Associates to investigate,

usually by contacting only Member personnel and, perhaps some third party witnesses.

It is important for the Members to know that when these “high-risk situation” investigations are conducted, the Member involved is not “charged” with a claim or any claim adjustment or investigation expense, unless an actual claim results. Investigation of these situations is not taken into account in future underwriting or calculation of the Member’s contributions.

In conclusion, our experience indicates that the earlier and faster the response to a serious claim situation, generally, the better the outcome. Likewise, early investigation into serious situations often places the Member and the Pool in the best possible position if a claim arises. And, in those situations if there is no claim, no one is any worse for the wear. As always, the SDPAA Team appreciates your support and looks forward to serving you. If you ever have questions or comments, please contact us at sdpaa@sdmunicipalleague.org or 800.658.3633.