Canterbury University researchers want to hear from claimants who got into disputes with insurance companies and the Earthquake Commission, now the Natural Hazards Commission.
“We know that for a lot of people, dealing with an insurance dispute was a secondary disaster and could be even worse than the earthquake,” said associate law professor Toni Collins.
Collins and Massey University senior psychology lecturer Lauren Vinnell hope to share the responses with insurance companies, the Insurance Council, and dispute resolution bodies.
“We hope we can learn from these experiences and changes will be made to make dispute resolution more of a client-centred process,” Collins said.
The survey asks how the disputes affected claimants’ mental and physical health, where claim disputes were heard, and how they felt about the overall dispute process.
With the 15th anniversary of the 2010 earthquake now passed, Collins said it was time to reflect further on the claims process.
“We feel we’re far enough away from the earthquakes now for this research to not cause too much distress, and we can all reflect and look to the future to improve how we resolve disputes,” she said.
“When all the first claims were happening, the only place for people to lodge a dispute with their insurance company was with the courts.
“As you can imagine, that’s a real access to justice issue. It’s very, very expensive,” she said.
Claimants who had positive experiences resolving disputes are also encouraged to respond.
Collins said there was no minimum number of respondents required for the survey, but she was hoping as many people as possible would contribute.
The research is also gathering responses from claimants with disputes stemming from the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake and Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023.
• Scan the QR code below to access the Canterbury University survey
