GO FIGURE!
One of the most interesting (and frustrating!) aspects
of our business is dealing with the vagrancies of legislative and judicial
process and decision.
At times, we think we are making reasonable progress, and then; like
Charlie Brown’s football, sensibility is snatched away!
One epic battle we’ve been fighting for several years, the aftermarket
parts class action, has finally been defeated with the Supreme Court’s
refusal to hear the appeal of the lower court decision in favor of State
Farm. This reinforces our right to the reasonable use of aftermarket
parts in loss settlements. An additional serendipitous outcome of the
decision is a tightening of the whole class action process, which makes “drive
by” certification of class actions much less likely in the future.
Closer to home, the industry scored a victory, with passage of legislation
to close the Butterfield “loophole” in our UM/UIM statute.
We now have more certainty in defining who is an insured and the extent
of our exposure. This was a difficult issue to make understandable for
our legislators, and was opposed by the trial lawyers, but reason prevailed.
However, our quota of reason must have been exhausted on Butterfield,
since in the next breath, the good folks in Augusta killed the bill to
establish a fraud unit in the Bureau of Insurance, despite a twelve to
one “Ought-to-Pass” committee report. The floor debate asserted,
since only the industry appeared to testify in favor, it must be a plot
against consumers! Go figure! Were the “fraudsters” supposed
to show up and defend their right to scam us??
The additional argument, that it required additional staffing at the
Bureau, is also specious, as the funding comes from the industry, not
the general fund. Ironically, last week the New Hampshire Fraud Unit
added their own full-time prosecutor to deal with the 20 million dollar
annual problem of insurance fraud in that state.
Apparently, taxes are not the only area where Maine doesn’t get
it!
Walter C. Smythe, CPCU, AAI, CIC
psmythe@patrons.com
President
