Contract of Adhesion

Property and liability insurance policies are said to be "contracts of adhesion" because the insurer and insured parties are generally of unequal bargaining power where the insured party cannot negotiate the terms of the contract and must take the offer of the insurer as made. The contract can be modified by endorsing the contract using pre-approved language. It also must be noted that the language in insurance contracts are generally approved by state law. And for life insurance, if the language does not meet insurance code minimums, the minimum is automatically read into the contract. Importantly, the rule of law regarding "contracts of adhesion" is that any ambiguities are resolved against the WRITER of the contract. The writer of the contract most of the time is the insurance company. However, large companies can write their own "manuscript" policies and place them in a broker's hands for bids. In this case ambiguities are construced against the writer - the insured in this case.