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Cal. INS § 657

This is the official text of Cal. INS § 657, part of California’s Insurance Code — regulates insurance companies and the insurance policies sold in California.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) Where any admitted insurer, licensed to issue motor vehicle liability policies as defined in Section 16450 of the Vehicle Code, or any licensed insurance agent refuses to accept an application for such a policy or refuses to issue such a policy when a written application has been made, the refusing agent or refusing insurer shall furnish to the applicant for insurance a written statement explaining the reason or reasons relied upon for such action if within 30 days of such refusal the applicant requests in writing, from the agent or insurer who has refused to accept the application or to issue the policy, such a written explanation. Such statement shall be furnished within 30 days of receipt of such request.

(b) Any insurer or agent willfully violating any provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each violation thereof.

(c) There shall be no liability on the part of, and no cause of action of any nature shall arise against, the Insurance Commissioner or against any insurer, its authorized representative, its agents, its employees, or any firm, person or corporation furnishing to the insurer information as to the reasons for such a refusal, for any statement made by any of them in any written notice of reasons for refusing to accept the application or issue the policy or in any other communication, oral or written, specifying the reasons for such action or the providing of the information pertaining thereto, or for statements made or evidence submitted in any hearings conducted in connection therewith.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.