Farmers who file a claim on their Federal Crop Insurance coverage must request arbitration in a timely manner if their claim is denied by their approved insurance provider or AIP, crop insurance legal expert Grant Ballard said.
That’s a change from previous crop insurance rules which said a dispute over a claim had to be taken to mediation and then to arbitration if the insured and the AIP couldn’t resolve the issue but didn’t spell out who had to file for arbitration.
Ballard, an attorney with Arkansas Ag Law in Little Rock, Ark., and a speaker for a recent monthly National Agricultural Law Center Webinar, said the change is contained in the 21.1-BR Common Crop Insurance Policy revisions announced by the USDA Risk Management Agency last November.