Insurance fraud charges often arise after a person makes a fraudulent insurance claim.
When you come home from work one day, you find that your house has been broken into while you were gone. After calling the police, you start to tally up the missing items so you can make a claim to your homeowner’s insurance company. You get to thinking that the insurance company doesn’t actually know what you had and what was taken…what if you added a few extra items to bump up the total value of the claim?
As a criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, CA, doing this may lead to criminal charges for insurance fraud. Under the California Penal Code, you can be charged with making a fraudulent insurance claim for this type of action. While it may be tempting, filing a false claim with the insurance company can land you in prison.
To prove a fraudulent insurance claim, a prosecutor must demonstrate that you:
- Made a false insurance claim, or helped someone else in making a false insurance claim;
- You knew that the claim was false or fraudulent; and
- You made the false statement or claim with the intent to defraud.
A fraudulent insurance claim is a wobbler offense, which means that it can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, depending on the type of claim and the amount at stake. Even if the insurance company did not pay out on your claim, you can still be convicted of this crime. As a felony, it is punishable by up to 5 years in jail, plus a $50,000 fine or up to double the amount of the fraud. If it is charged as a misdemeanor, you may face up to 1 year in county jail and/or a $10,000 fine.
Importantly, insurance fraud is considered a specific intent crime. This means that the prosecutor must demonstrate that you knowingly made the false claim with the purpose of defrauding the insurance company. A skilled criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, CA may be able to argue that your claim was not made with the intent to defraud. For example, if you claimed that your valuable jewelry was stolen in the home invasion, and later learned that your partner had moved the jewelry to a safe deposit box, that may be a defense to a charge of filing a fraudulent insurance claim.
Insurance fraud may arise in a number of contexts, such as staging car accidents to get money from a car insurance policy, falsely claiming that you are unable to work while on workers’ compensation, or through healthcare fraud. No matter how your case occurs, you will need an experienced criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles, CA to represent you — and fight for your freedom.
If you have been charged with insurance fraud or any other California crime, the Chambers Law Firm will vigorously defend you. Contact us today at 714-760-4088 or dchambers@clfca.com to schedule a consultation with a member of our team.
