(a) Whenever the Flesch reading ease test is used, its reading score shall be computed as follows:

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 431:10-106

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Contract: means any policy of life, accident and health or sickness, credit life, credit disability, homeowners, and motor vehicle insurance covering personally owned or personally leased private passenger motor vehicles prepared for delivery by an insurer. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 431:10-102
  • Flesch reading ease test: means the test set forth in section 431:10-106. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 431:10-102
  • Text: includes all printed material in the contract except:

    (1) The insurer's name and address;

    (2) The name, number, or title of the contract;

    (3) The table of contents or index;

    (4) Any captions or subcaptions;

    (5) Any specification pages, schedules, or tables;

    (6) Any language required by federal law, regulation, or agency interpretation or any written certification to exclude such language;

    (7) Any language required by any collective bargaining agreement;

    (8) Any medical terminology; and

    (9) Any definitions. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 431:10-102

(1) The number of words and sentences in the text shall be counted and the total number of words divided by the total number of sentences; and
(2) The resulting figure shall be multiplied by a factor of 1.015; then
(3) The total number of syllables shall be counted and then divided by the total number of words; and
(4) The resulting figure shall be multiplied by a factor of 84.6; then
(5) The figures computed in items (2) and (4) shall be added together and the resulting sum subtracted from 206.835 to yield the Flesch reading ease score.
(b) For the purposes of subsection (a), the following procedures shall be used:

(1) Each contract consisting of ten thousand words or less shall be analyzed in its entirety by the method prescribed in subsection (a);
(2) Each contract consisting of more than ten thousand words may be analyzed by applying the method prescribed in subsection (a) to two, two hundred word samples separated by a minimum of ten printed lines on each page of the contract;
(3) All riders, endorsements, applications, and other forms may be scored with the contract or scored as separate forms;
(4) Numbers and letters, when separated by spaces, a contraction, or a hyphenated word shall be counted as one word;
(5) A unit of words ending with a period, semicolon, or colon, excluding headings and captions, shall be counted as one sentence; and
(6) Whenever an accepted dictionary indicates that a word has two or more acceptable pronunciations, the pronunciation having the fewer number of syllables may be used. Syllable, as used in this paragraph, means a unit of spoken language consisting of one or more letters of a word as divided by an accepted dictionary.
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