The Oregon Temporary Adjuster license

ORS 744.555 is two permits in one section and the second is the one most states leave out. 744.555(1)(a) is the catastrophe permit: where the Governor has declared a catastrophe under the definition at 744.502(3), the director may permit anybody authorized in another state to adjust losses in the catastrophe area, for 90 days or longer if the director judges it necessary, "in lieu of the license and fee requirements otherwise applicable". 744.555(1)(b) then covers the ordinary case with no disaster in it at all: a permit for somebody licensed at home whom an authorized insurer or an insured sends to Oregon to investigate or adjust a particular loss. The application asks for three things, the applicant's name, their address and the state where they are authorized. No examination, no course, no fee named in the statute. 744.515(2)(c) is what makes the catastrophe permit worth having rather than merely permitted: somebody who obtains it within five days of being deployed to adjust claims from a declared catastrophe needs no adjuster license, provided they do only what the permit authorizes. Oregon's definition of catastrophe is the Governor's declaration rather than the insurance director's, and it is written around human need and state capacity rather than around insured loss: a large number of injuries or deaths, extensive damage to facilities that sustain human needs, an overwhelming demand on state and local resources, a severe long-term effect on general economic activity, or a severe effect on the ability of state, local and private bodies to respond.

Read at oregonlegislature.gov on 2026-08-19