Posts
Siding with Insurance Companies Just
When Texans Need Them
There is no doubt that conservatives
think government is there to protect big business from consumers. In
Texas the state has a new law about
to go into effect that severely benefits the insurance industry
and severely harms policy holders. Timing could not be better for
insurers who are quick to take the premium, slow to pay out benefits.
The
new Texas insurance law includes changes that affect what happens to
a claim that ends up being litigated in court. Among the changes are
a sharp reduction in compensation for plaintiffs’ lawyers in cases
where their clients are awarded significantly less than initially
sought.
Plaintiffs’
lawyers and other critics of the law are concerned it will hurt
policyholders’ ability to find lawyers to sue insurers if they are
unsatisfied with the outcome of their claim. Backers of the law say
it is aimed at weeding out trumped-up claims, after years of
allegedly spurious lawsuits claiming hailstorm damage brought by
plaintiffs’ lawyers against home insurers.
Guess what fellers, what is happening
in Texas ain't hailstorms. And there is this.
Meanwhile,
Texans are likely to have another issue with the law going into
effect Friday. Some businesses are angry that the provisions apply to
commercial insurance, not just the hailstorm claims on homeowner
policies that helped inspire the new law.
“If
you want to restrict hail claims, you should write it to restrict
hail claims,” said Bob Ryan, deputy general counsel of Stallion
Oilfield Services in Houston.
James
Cooper of Reed Smith LLP, an outside lawyer for Stallion, said his
objections include the law’s reducing a longstanding penalty aimed
at deterring bad behavior by carriers. Under that change, Texas
courts will levy as little as 10% interest on insurers for wrongly
delayed payments, down from 18%.
But that's okay Texans, you just keep
voting them conservatives in, see what it does for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment