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"A group of property owners affected by the January wildfires is suing major California insurance carriers, including the state's largest, State Farm, accusing them of violating California's antitrust and unfair competition laws.
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The group complaint .... allege that in a "nefarious conspiracy," major insurers conspired to "eliminate competition between them," thereby "intentionally and systematically" forcing homeowners to accept the California FAIR Plan.
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The complaints allege that, by colluding to push plaintiffs and so many like them to the FAIR Plan, the defendants have reaped the benefits of high premiums while depriving homeowners of coverage that they were ready, willing, and able to purchase to ensure that they could recover after a disaster like January's wildfires.
Representatives of the major insurance companies meet regularly to "discuss issues that we would consider to be market issues," including the administration of the FAIR Plan, said Jamie Court, president and chair of the board of Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica-based, progressive nonprofit. "This was clearly a concerted attempt by the entire industry to push people in high-risk areas to lower benefit policies, and at the same time keep collecting higher premiums from everyone else.
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"Homeowners across the state should not be on the hook for the L.A. fires because insurance companies abandoned those neighborhoods and dumped homeowners on the FAIR Plan," Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, told The Times in January."
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The group complaint .... allege
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The complaints allege that, by colluding to push plaintiffs and so many like them to the FAIR Plan, the defendants have reaped the benefits of high premiums while depriving homeowners of coverage that they were ready, willing, and able to purchase to ensure that they could recover after a disaster like January's wildfires.
Representatives of the major insurance companies meet regularly to "discuss issues that we would consider to be market issues," including the administration of the FAIR Plan, said Jamie Court, president and chair of the board of Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica-based, progressive nonprofit. "This was clearly a concerted attempt by the entire industry to push people in high-risk areas to lower benefit policies, and at the same time keep collecting higher premiums from everyone else.
....
"Homeowners across the state should not be on the hook for the L.A. fires because insurance companies abandoned those neighborhoods and dumped homeowners on the FAIR Plan," Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog, told The Times in January."
Full Story
