History Main / HeroInsurance

* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'': Walker and company never seemed to care about the damage they caused with all the fights they get into, though, in Season 9's "[[Recap/WalkerTexasRangerS9E12DesperateMeasures Desperate Measures]]", Gage did compensate a restaurant owner at least once after he roughed up two thugs who were harassing two women, [[spoiler:who, little did he know at the time, happened to be prison escapees (one was innocent of a crime she didn't commit, while the other is serving life for killing three men).]]

This trope often occurs with HeroWithBadPublicity, in that peoples' anger is wrongly directed at the hero, rather than at ''the villain who caused the trouble in the first place.'' Civilians who whine about rescues they don't like can often come across as {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s when it doesn't seem to occur to them that they could end up enslaved, dead or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]] if TheBadGuyWins and the hero doesn't stop them.

* In the 2009 ''VideoGame/{{Ghostbusters|the video game}}'' game, it's revealed early on that the Ghostbusters no longer work for the ''people'' of New York, but for the ''city'' of New York, with a contract to take care of any and all paranormal disturbances. In addition, the city has a lucrative insurance contract for damage due to either paranormal entities or paranormal "investigations". In fact, the mayor got the insurance policy after the Ghostbusters endorsed him in the election campaign, and it's outright stated by Ray that it probably won the election for the mayor. In addition, there's an oversight committee, headed by the [[SarcasmMode ever-lovable]] [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Walter Peck]], called the Paranormal Contract Oversight Committee. And the icing on the cake: the game TRACKS how much property damage the Ghostbusters incur.

* In ''Superman Returns'', as Superman is invincible, the life bar is that of collateral damage done to Metropolis. Which is a brilliant idea in a shitty game.

* Lan/Netto commits so many felonies during the course of the ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' series that the LetsPlay of it actually harps on the fact. It's actually less egregious than other examples because he very rarely breaks physical stuff - Lan mostly sneaks somewhere he is not allowed to be in pursuit of of the current villain. And because he manages to save the day, officials can let it slide. The sequel series ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce'' lampshades hero insurance in the 2nd game, Omega-Xis mentions being considered a hero is something to be proud of, and that because of it, people won't mind if they cause damage.

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''. In Billie's first battle with a demon, she hits an empty seat in a movie theater with a fireball, and wonders, "Now help me out here, I'm new at this. Who pays for that?" But mostly averted with the No Personal Gain rules, the sisters must cover damage done to the home out of their own pocket. They lampshade it by noting one window repair man likes their business.
* Also lampshaded in ''Series/{{Angel}}'': after a SuperWindowJump he comments that the demons were now good guys who "own a number of restaurants with pretty expensive windows"

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d earlier in "Ted" when the gang worries what punishment Buffy will receive for killing the eponymous character [[spoiler:who turns out to be not dead, since he was a robot]]

* [[http://www.evil-comic.com/archive/20060420.html Parodied]] in EvilInc. One of the services the titular company provides is "Battlefield Location and Booking" which seeks out abandoned locations for villains and heroes to battle to avoid lawsuits from any property damage and casualties. This could also be considered an inversion since, as the name of the company indicates, it's the ''supervillains'' who are in charge of this service. If there's one thing supervillains probably will hate more than superheroes, it's ''lawyers''.

* A plot point in[[https://mobile.twitter.com/kounosuke0808/status/1264816262594482177 this story]] which is about a giant-sized man whose job is fighting kaiju sized lizard aliens. He's fallen on hard times because he's getting little action and thus less sponsorship for him and his supporters. He can't help out in other regions, which have their own heroes, because he has an insurance contract for collateral damage only in his district. His manager is able to get them the money they need by liquidating this contract, but at the risk of making him then incapable of taking any action without taking on all the cost. He does it anyway but manages to get the money he needs from a previously failed crowdfunding effort due to all the goodwill he earned.

* In ''Fanfic/MoreThanHuman'', the city of Townsville has higher tax rates to pay for the large amount of damages done by monster attacks and by WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls fighting back.

* Retired lawyer Bob Ingersoll, who reviews comics for legal accuracy with his "Law Is A Ass" column, has stated that in many cases superheroes would legally be covered by the "emergency doctrine", and thus couldn't get prosecuted or sued when they cause property damages when trying to save lives.

This is sometimes {{handwave}}d with the heroes actually ''[[LampshadeHanging mentioning]]'' that they've got insurance that will cover this--and is actually a specific rule featured in the old Comics Code--but it's unclear how any insurance company could do this and still turn a profit. Logically, they shouldn't be able to pay for the on-panel destruction unless they are also collecting mammoth premiums from many other superheroes who ''don't'' make big claims. So whenever Superman punches through a wall, somewhere, a less-violent hero like ComicBook/{{Oracle}} sees her premiums go up? That money has to come from somewhere! Other times the handwave comes from the fact that the hero [[Fiction500 is a billionaire]] and could pay for the rebuilds.

[[caption-width-right:250:Valid only in New York City. If you wreck anything in Hoboken, you're on the hook for it.]]

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', the Doctor causes destruction and mayhem on a regular basis, on one occasion draining the River Thames, and he ''never'' sticks around to clear up the mess. It is kinda hard to charge him for damages considering he can simply escape by jumping around through time and space. Not to mention changing his appearance every now and then. Easily explains his mixed reputation among those people who know about him, though. This is why the original Torchwood had him listed as an enemy in their charter. They were founded when Queen Victoria saw him in action; she knighted him for his heroism then banished him for his crimes (and for being too damn cheerful about the deadly werewolf attack).

* All of the ''Series/TheDefenders2017'' shows from the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'':

* TurnedUpToEleven with Atomica in one ''Webcomic/FafnirTheDragon'' story. A SuperHero in a {{Stripperiffic}} costume who, apart from the MostCommonSuperpower, is ImmuneToBullets (which causes bullets the robbers [[ShootingSuperman shoot at her]] to ricochet into every nearby hostage), SuperStrength (which allows her to use a bankvault door as a shield to protect hostages from gunfire... only to drop it on top of them when she goes of to pursue one of the robber), the ability to melt guns (which sets the robbers on fire) and the ability to gently knock out a robber with a thrown object (at the edge of the curb, where his head gets crushed by the police car). Her being TheDitz, she never actually notices and thinks she's a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age Superhero]] and the StrawmanNewsMedia praises her all the way.

* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'': The Inquisition functions as such for the player. If anything, a lot of tasks done by the Inquisition are about enforcing this trope since Thedas is still dealing with the aftermath of the Templar-Mage War. The general MO is for the player and team to go in, deal with/fix the problem and then use the Inquisition's resources to further fix any underlying problems. The people end up very happy seeing Inquisition forces show up and give them a lot of leeway aince they'll clean up any mess they make.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In the episode "For the Uniform", Ben Sisko orders the poisoning of the entire atmosphere of a Maquis planet in order to convince a treasonous former Federation officer to surrender. The series does not imply Sisko ever faces any consequences for essentially ordering the commission of a war crime by using a bio-weapon on a defenseless civilian target.

* In ''Literature/DealingWithDragons'' a famous hero is mocked because, when he threw a rampaging giant into a lake to drown it, the resulting flood actually did more damage than the giant itself would have.

* HeroInsutrance/WesternAnimation

* ''Series/{{House}}'': Dr. House in RealLife would have his medical license stripped and face multiple malpractice suits, if not actually be in prison. Members of his staff and the hospital would also find themselves in trouble. The hospital actually earmarks a portion of the budget for House-related lawsuits.

This trope often occurs with MisBlamed, in that peoples' anger is wrongly directed at the hero, rather than at ''the villain who caused the trouble in the first place.'' Civilians who whine about rescues they don't like can often come across as {{Ungrateful Bastard}}s when it doesn't seem to occur to them that they could end up enslaved, dead or [[FateWorseThanDeath worse]] if TheBadGuyWins and the hero doesn't stop them.

** When you are also backed by a multi-billion corporation and its marketing ''and'' legal departments, it is very easy to make people remain silent with their complaints or by outright forcing them to never mention anything by signing an agreement outside of court. Those few that insist on still making a fuss over the damage, destruction, or manslaughter get simply buried under litigation Vought can easily afford for years. Butcher does a small bit of investigating of concurrent crimes at the time of Robin's death proves internally it was false (and help recruit Hughie to his mission) but the uphill legal battle would still be brutal, thus much of the first season revolves around getting proof that A-Train is actually an addict and under the influence at the time of Robins death.
** In the past Butcher and his team were semi-sponsored by the CIA, but after several bad incidents (an attempt at blackmailing Lamplighter to give them a link inside the Seven lead to him killing [[TheHandler Mallory's]] grandchildren) they were forced to be more of a freelance team and have a difficult time keeping together at the start of the series. Butcher still has numerous contacts because of that past association, though many bridges were also burned. The Boys do end up guilty of or accomplices in numerous murders, robberies, blackmail and trespassing, which forces them to go deep underground once Vought becomes more aware of their existence. They do rebuild their relationships as they uncover legitimate evidence, [[spoiler: leading to all charges against them being dropped at the end of the second season, with talk of them heading an official counter-supe team for the CIA]].

* Averted in ''Gold in the Sky'', the 1958 sci-fi thriller by Alan E. Nourse. Our heroes are kidnapped by Merrill Tawney, the CorruptCorporateExecutive of an AsteroidMiner corporation, and are held prisoner on his spaceship. They succeed in sabotaging the spaceship and use Tawney as a hostage to escape, but wonder why he's acting so smart when they take him back to Mars to be handed over to the [[UNIsASuperpower United Nations Patrol]]. Instead the UN arrests ''them'' for kidnapping and space piracy while Tawney laughs his head off.