Recently the Joint Finance Committee approved a final version of Governor Doyle's budget which contains a number of mandates that are going to have a major affect on everyone's insurance premiums. Did I mention they did this in the middle of the night? That doesn't seem sneaky at all!
Here is a summary of the issues:
1. A return to joint and several liability, in which you can be forced to pay any millions of dollars even if you were only minimally at fault. Currently, state law mandates that a defendant must be found at least 51% at fault to be found liable. Doyle wanted to reduce that to 1%. The committee will tell you that they listened to the people and compromised by changing Doyle's proposal to 20%. So now, an individual who is 80% innocent can still be held liable for 100% of all damages.
2. Requiring the highest auto limits in the nation. As a compromise, the Democrats agreed to phase in the increases. However, to make matters worse, they added an annual inflationary index that would eventually require the minimums to be raised to odd numbers like $103,624.
3. Allowing stacking of limits for Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist. This is a particular concern for commercial auto. For example, under current law if a customer purchases a limit of $1 million, then that customer is protected up to that limit for any one loss. Under the new proposal, the limit would be determined based upon the number of vehicles that are insured. So, the person who owns a fleet of 100 vehicles, would be able to "stack" all of the limits together and would be covered for, not the $1 million he paid for, but $100 million.
4. Allowing judges and attorneys to give a jury instructions which will unduly influence them and introduce a sympathy factor. A jury is supposed to decide cases on fact, not sympathy.
5. The budget also calls for numerous tax increases as well as fee increases on such everyday items as your cell phone.
I know people don't like thinking about insurance but we all have to pay for it and our Governor is trying to make you pay more by adding in these changes to the budget. If you have a second click on the link, http://www.votervoice.net/link/target/wiia33772441.aspx and fill out the form to let them know you do not want to pay more for your insurance premiums.
Tom
This is the blog for G2 Insurance Services, Inc. It was established by Tom Gaumond to keep people up to date on what is happening in the insurance industry but also to pass along valuable business information from our friends.
