TIM RYLES

Tim Ryles Consulting Services. Insurance regulation, litigation support, government relations, consumer protection; Associate, Robert Hughes Associates, Dallas, TX.

Georgia Commissioner of Insurance, January 1991-January 1995, an office that also carries the titles of Industrial Loan Commissioner, Safety Fire Commissioner and Comptroller General; Special Assistant to Governor George Busbee; Administrator, Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, 1975-1982; Statutory Advisory Committee & State Liaison Officer, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission; President and Vice President, National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators; Executive Committee, NAIC; Chair, NAIC Anti-Fraud Committee; Chairman, Georgia Coalition for Consumer Rights; Board of Directors, National Consumer Symposium, Tucson, AZ and Georgia Consumer Center; Consumer Rights and Remedies Committee, State Bar of GA, Georgia Watch.

M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Georgia; B.S., Troy State College, Troy, AL. Academic areas include Public Law, Public Administration, American Politics, statistical analysis (parametric and nonparametric), and survey research. Taught Political Science at the University of Georgia (three years), Georgia State University (seven years), and Mercer University (appx. two years); Graduate and tenured Faculty at Georgia State; NAIC Passe Club; Insurance Section,  Associate Member, American Bar Association, Tort & Insurance Practices Section, Center for Science in the Public Interest. Post-College & Continuing Education: Managed Care (American Quality Assurance Association & Georgetown University); Concord Law School, six months of torts, contracts, criminal law, legal reasoning; Georgia Life and Health Pre-Licensing Course 2001 & 2011; Georgia Property & Casualty/Adjuster Pre-Licensing Course 2001 & 2011; Variable Life Insurance Basics (R.S. Thomas School); Insurance Bad Faith Claims in Georgia (Lorman Education Services CLE/Insurance CEU); Auto Accident Law & Accident Litigation in Georgia, Lorman Education Services CLE/CEU; HIPAA Compliance: Putting the Regulations Into Practice - Practical Steps to HIPAA Implementation in GA (Lorman); Solving Mold Problems in GA (Lorman); Commercial General Liability, IIAG CE Program; National Forensic Center 1998 Conference on Expert Testimony; Pictorial/BISYS courses in Interest Sensitive Whole Life Basics; Universal Life Basics; Claim Investigation; Claim Basics; Claim Statements; Ethical Practices; Auto Physical Damage Basics; Insurance Ethics and Consumer Protection; Commercial General Liability Coverage; Umbrella Liability Coverage; Commercial General Liability Rating; Commercial Property Coverage; Retrospective Rating; Basic Mediation Skills and Practicum taught by Conflict Resolution Center, Atlanta. Career Development Seminar, 2005; Insurance Regulatory Examiners Society. Trucking Regulation and DOT Regulations, Lorman; ABA TIPS Conference on Litigating the Catastrophic Property Claim, 2010; AAI 81: Principles of Insurance Production: A. Principles of Insurance; B. Personal Insurance; C. Commercial Property Insurance; AAI 82 Multiple Lines Insurance Production Segments A, B&C: AAI 83:Agency Operations and Sales Management: A. Principles of Agency Management; B. The Insurance Production Environment; C. Agent Management Tools and Processes; Ethical Guidelines for Insurance Professionals, AAI Ethics requirement, The Institutes; Professional Insurance Agents of GA “Education Expo 2013” updates on ISO CGL, Property & BOP form changes, Core Ethical Principles, Sales and Advertising Practices; Homeowners Insurance Policies; Flood Insurance; Ethics in the Insurance Industry; Understanding the Homeowners Policy; Insurance Contracts and Liability; Umbrella Policies, Understanding Insurance Fraud. Lecturer at CLE seminars of Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association; Georgia Trial Lawyers Association; American Law Firm Association; TIPS Section of American Bar Association, National Association of Trial Lawyer Executives; presenter/participant Claims Expert Forum, Reno, NV, 2015 and 2017.

Professional Designations: Accredited Advisor in Insurance (AAI)

Director, Common Sense Trust Mutual Funds, a four fund joint venture of the A.L. Williams Company of Duluth, GA and American Capital of Houston, TX; Atlanta Health Care Alliance Board of Directors (five years); BellSouth Health Care Cost Containment Committee, the governing board for employee benefit plan; Member of BellSouth-CWA Contract Bargaining teams of 1986 and 1989; BellSouth-CWA Employment Security Advisory Board; Governor's Health Care Commission.

• Author "Consumer Contact" column for several newspapers; Commentator, WGTV public television's "Money Line" Program.
• VIDEO: Producer, writer and on-camera host, "Is Time Running Out?" An examination of whole life and term insurance for A.L. Williams Company, 1988.
• Authored Preface to A.L. Williams, All You Can Do Is All You Can Do, But All You Can Do Is Enough (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1988).
• "How The Insurance Commissioner Views The No-Fault Bill," in Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Life After No-Fault (Atlanta, GA: Continuing Legal Education Series, October 4, 1991), pp. 49-63.
• "The Death Spiral : It's Time to Kill It." RHA Review, Dallas, TX, (Vol. 4, No.1, 1997).
• "Why Choice No-Fault Fails." Law Reporter: Journal of the Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii, (July1997).
• "The Filed Rate Doctrine: A Trojan Horse for Insurers?" RHA Review, Dallas, TX Vol. 5, No. 1, 1998.
• "The Role of the Expert Witness in Insurance Litigation." West's (ABA TIPS Proceedings, 1999);
• "Universal Life Litigation: Unraveling an Unbundled Product," RHA Review, (Vol. 8, No 3, 2002); 
• "Illusory Insurance Trusts and the Deceptive Marketing of Health Insurance," RHA Review, Vol. 10, No. 1 2003
• "Who Really Lives (or Doesn't) in Your Household?" Expert Commentary, International Risk Management Institute (IRMI), Dallas, TX, January 2005.
• "Household, Family and Other Problems in Homeowners Policy Language," IRMI Expert Commentary March 2005.
• "Probing the Gaps in GAP Insurance," IRMI Commentary June 2005.
• "GA Supreme Court Stalls Motor Club Plans Deeming Them Insurance Even If they Are Not Regulated as Insurance," IRMI 09/05
• "How to Recognize and Avoid Health Insurance Fraud," IRMI Commentary January 2006
• "Marketing Health Insurance Through "Trusteed Groups": A Perversion of the Group Insurance Concept," IRMI March 2006
• "Dissecting Problems in Association Health Plans," IRMI Commentary June 2006
• "Leonard v. Nationwide: Victory or Trojan Horse for Insurers?" IRMI October 2006
• "Agent Liability in "Katrina Litigation," IRMI Commentary IRMI Commentary December 2006
• "Hazards of Relying on Computer Technology in Claim Settlements," IRMI March 2007
• "Rethinking Concurrent Causation and the Flood Exclusion," IRMI Commentary (June 2007)
• "Rethinking the Flood Exclusion: A Coverage Analysis," RHA Review, Vol. 13, No 4 2007
• "Why Insurance Companies Should be Risk Bearers, Not Risk Managers," IRMI January 2008 
• "Why Insurance Companies Have a Duty to Advise Insureds in First Party Claims…." IRMI September 2008. See also RHA Review, Vol. 14, No.4, Sept. 2008.
• "The Duty to Disclose Policy Limits in Third Party Claims," IRMI October 2008
• "Fraud and Abuse or Abuse of Fraud: Do Antifraud Laws Tip the Scales Against Policyholders?" IRMI January 2009
• "Are State Regulators Prepared to Fight Fraud Objectively? A Case Study," IRMI May 2009
• "Pitfalls in Public-Private Partnerships in the War on Fraud," IRMI August 2009
• "Underwriting and Claims: Time to Become Friends?" IRMI December 2009.
• "Anticoncurrent Causation Theory Refined by Mississippi Supreme Court," IRMI (June 2010) 
• "A Framework for Evaluating the Role of Third Party Vendors in Claims Investigations," IRMI November 2010 
• "Tennessee Supreme Court Deals Blow to Duty to Read," IRMI July 2011
• "So You Think You Are a Professional: The Judicial Model of a Producer's Professional Status," IRMI March 2012
• "Resources for Identifying Standards of Conduct for Insurance Producers," IRMI Aug. 2012
• "New Issues in Marketing of Producer Errors and Omissions Insurance," IRMI March 2013
• "Risk Purchasing Groups: A Fictitious Grouping for Illusory E&O Coverage?" IRMI April, 2013 
• "Judicial Estoppel and Insurance Claims," IRMI November 2013
• “In Praise (or Not) of the Appraisal Clause in Homeowners Policies (Part 1),” October 2014
• “In Praise (or Not) of the Appraisal Clause in Homeowners Policies (Part 2),” IRMI November 2014
• “Just What Does ‘Amount of Loss’ Amount to in Appraisal Clauses? (Part 3),” IRMI December 2014
• “In Search of a Paradigm for Ethical Conduct in Insurance,” IRMI May 2017

Two lecture tours of India for U.S. government; Lectured in several universities and professional/trade association conferences, including University of Moscow; Byelorussian State University in Mensk, Belarus; American Bar Association; American Law Firm Association; American Trial Lawyers Association; National Conference of State Legislatures. Testified before the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, state legislatures, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development; training for Progressive Corporation managers; Lecturer at CLE seminars of Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association; Georgia Trial Lawyers Association; American Law Firm Association; TIPS Section of American Bar Association; American Trial Lawyers Association; “The Consumer’s Perspective on Assignment of Benefits Under Homeowners Policies” presented at 2015 Florida Symposium on Assignment of Property Insurance Claim Benefits.