SECTION 55.605. Protection from Liability; Remittance of Funds

(a) An insurer that provides information required by this subchapter or acts in good faith to comply with procedures established by the Child Support Division (CSD) for the operation of the insurance intercept program under this subchapter, including the remittance of funds as specified under this rule, or responds to a notice of child support lien or levy under Texas Family Code Chapter 157, Subchapter G, is not liable for those acts under any law to any person. This includes but is not limited to any claims asserted under Chapter 541, Chapter 542, Chapter 601, or Chapter 602 of the Insurance Code; Chapter 17 of the Business and Commerce Code; Chapter 181 of the Health and Safety Code; or an action for common law bad faith. However, an insurer who fails to comply with a child support lien, including the remittance of funds as specified under this rule, may be liable to the CSD as the child support lien claimant in an amount equal to the amount of funds payable under an insurance claim, not to exceed the amount of the child support arrearages for which the lien was issued. See Texas Family Code §157.324. An insurer who has questions or concerns about a child support lien, including the appropriate remittance of funds under a policy to which the lien attaches, must contact the Texas Special Collections Unit, P.O. Box 12027, Austin, Texas 78711-2027, before paying out any funds under the policy.

(b) An insurer should remit funds in satisfaction of a child support lien in one of the following ways:

(1) On receipt of a signed agreement between the CSD and a claimant and/or claimant's attorney, the insurer should remit the funds agreed to be paid to satisfy the child support lien to: Texas State Disbursement Unit, Insurance Intercept, P.O. Box 245996, San Antonio, Texas 78224-5996. The funds should be made payable to the Office of the Attorney General, and the remittance should identify the name of the claimant/obligor and the CSD's case number(s) as shown on the Notice of Lien.

(2) If the claimant is represented by an attorney but the insurer has not received a copy of any signed agreement between the attorney and the CSD, the insurer should remit all the funds directly to the claimant's attorney and must include the Office of the Attorney General as a co-payee and provide the Office of the Attorney General with written notice of the data and amount of the payment sent to the attorney.

(3) If the claimant has no attorney, and the insurer has not received a copy of any signed agreement between the claimant and the CSD, the insurer must remit all the funds to the Texas State Disbursement Unit, Insurance Intercept, P.O. Box 245996, San Antonio, Texas 78224-5996 with the funds being made payable to the Office of the Attorney General and the remittance should identify the name of the claimant/obligor and the CSD's case number(s) as shown on the Notice of Lien.

Source Note: The provisions of this §55.605 adopted to be effective June 10, 2003, 28 TexReg 4409; amended to be effective March 16, 2010, 35 TexReg 2153; amended to be effective December 2, 2013, 38 TexReg 8639; amended to be effective May 12, 2022, 47 TexReg 2727