Section 2601. Unfair claim settlement practices; penalties

(a) No insurer
  doing business in this state shall engage  in  unfair  claim  settlement
  practices. Any of the following acts by an insurer, if committed without
  just  cause  and  performed with such frequency as to indicate a general
  business practice, shall constitute unfair claim settlement practices:
    (1) knowingly misrepresenting to claimants pertinent facts  or  policy
  provisions relating to coverages at issue;
    (2)  failing  to  acknowledge  with  reasonable  promptness  pertinent
  communications as to claims arising under its policies;
    (3) failing to adopt and implement reasonable standards for the prompt
  investigation of claims arising under its policies;
    (4) not attempting in  good  faith  to  effectuate  prompt,  fair  and
  equitable  settlements of claims submitted in which liability has become
  reasonably clear, except where there is a reasonable basis supported  by
  specific  information  available  for  review by the department that the
  claimant has caused the loss  to  occur  by  arson.  After  receiving  a
  properly  executed  proof of loss, the insurer shall advise the claimant
  of acceptance or denial of the claim within thirty working days;
    (5) compelling policyholders to institute suits to recover amounts due
  under its policies by  offering  substantially  less  than  the  amounts
  ultimately recovered in suits brought by them; or
    (6)  failing  to promptly disclose coverage pursuant to subsection (d)
  or subparagraph (A) of paragraph two of subsection (f) of section  three
  thousand four hundred twenty of this chapter.
    (b)  Evidence  as to numbers and types of complaints to the department
  against an insurer and as to the department's complaint experience  with
  other insurers writing similar lines of insurance shall be admissible in
  evidence in any administrative or judicial proceeding under this section
  or  article  twenty-four or seventy-four of this chapter, but no insurer
  shall be deemed in violation of this section solely  by  reason  of  the
  numbers and types of such complaints.
    (c)  If it is found, after notice and an opportunity to be heard, that
  an insurer has violated this section,  each  instance  of  noncompliance
  with  subsection  (a)  hereof  may be treated as a separate violation of
  this section for purposes of ordering a  monetary  penalty  pursuant  to
  subsection  (b) of section one hundred nine of this chapter. A violation
  of this section shall not be a misdemeanor.