Texas Watch » Insurance

11,000 to Lose Home Insurance

caroline — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:14:25 +0000

Southeast Texans need to get ready to find another home insurance provider if you’re insured with State Farm.

Beginning on May 1, 2012, State Farm says it will no longer renew home insurance for 11,000 homeowners living near coastal areas.

…

With few providers left, Alex Winslow with Texas Watch says many will have to look to the government run Texas Windstorm Association for insurance.

“It’s very dangerous. TWIA is not equipped to have this number of policy holders and this number of families relying on it,” says Winslow.

Farmers Given OK to Raise Texas Homeowners Insurance Rates

caroline — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:32:35 +0000

AUSTIN — Nearly 350,000 Texas homeowners insured by Farmers Insurance will see their premiums jump by nearly 10 percent beginning next month after state Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman decided not to object to the increase.

…

A consumer group immediately criticized the commissioner for the Farmers decision and noted that Kitzman already has approved a rate hike for State Farm, which included a higher minimum deductible for its homeowners policies.

“So far, Eleanor Kitzman hasn’t met a rate hike she didn’t like,” said Alex Winslow of Texas Watch.

Winslow said Texas homeowners continue to get less insurance protection for more money as companies restrict what losses they will cover. He pointed out that Allstate and USAA also have increased their rates this year.

Read More: The Dallas Morning News (subscription required)

Auto Insurance Costs More For Poor People, Consumer Group Says

caroline — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:36:46 +0000

The poorest Americans are unable to buy affordable auto insurance because of insurance company bias, a consumers group charged Monday.

Insurance companies are prohibited from basing premiums on income, but can consider a driver’s credit rating, home address and occupation. Those factors are essentially surrogates for income, according to the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer lobby group in Washington, D.C.

“In some areas, many responsible lower-income drivers are required to spend more than $1,000 a year for liability coverage that is often unfairly priced and provides no real insurance protection to them,” said Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the consumer group. He called on states to improve access to low-cost insurance. California is currently the only state with a robust low-rate coverage program.

Auto Insurance Rates in Texas Climbing

caroline — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:24:15 +0000

AUSTIN — The high cost of fixing damaged cars and trucks in Texas has pushed up the price of auto insurance in the state to 11th highest in the nation, according to a new study analyzing premiums across the country.

The study by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows that the price of collision coverage — the portion of an insurance policy that pays to repair damage after an accident — has been climbing in Texas and now ranks as the fifth highest among the states.

By contrast, the amount paid for liability coverage — which has been a target for advocates of limiting lawsuits — ranks 20th among the states.

Read More: The Dallas Morning News (subscription required)

The Court’s Defenders: Polluters, Big Insurance, Corporate Wrongdoers

Texas Watch — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:36:03 +0000

On the heels of a 10-year review by Court Watch that found the Texas Supreme Court routinely sides with big government and big corporate interests over everyday Texans, the very special interests that benefit from the Court’s pro-defendant penchant rose to the court’s defense. None of the attacks, however, were able to discredit Court Watch’s findings or the report’s conclusions. Instead, critics are resorting to condescension and ad hominem attacks.

The report, “Thumbs on the Scale: A Retrospective of the Texas Supreme Court, 2000-2010,” was released last week by Court Watch, a project of the Texas Watch Foundation. Among the report’s findings was that consumers lost an average of 79% of cases at the high court and that the court overturned 74% of local juries who found in favor of consumers.

“The Supreme Court is hiding behind the very special interests that it routinely protects,” said Alex Winslow, director of Court Watch. “The lobbyists for polluters, insurance companies, and other corporate wrongdoers can’t dispute our findings. So, they have resorted to condescension and ad hominem attacks. Texans will see right through it.”

Among those attempting to attack Court Watch is the special interest group known as “Texans for Lawsuit Reform,” a Houston-based group run by a handful of corporate chieftains. TLR’s board includes individuals who represent industries that routinely put workers, consumers, and small business owners at risk of needless injury or financial devastation. TLR has spent millions in political races over the last 20 years to dismantle the civil justice system in Texas. This effort was bankrolled by industries including big oil, big insurance, and big banks, along with chemical, homebuilding, and pharmaceutical interests and their lobbyists and trade groups.

One well respected political columnist wrote that the Texas Supreme Court is “a wholly owned subsidiary of Texans for Lawsuit Reform.”

“When TLR and its ilk lob ad hominem attacks in defense of the Texas Supreme Court, consider the source,” said Winslow. “TLR represents the very interests that have reaped the greatest reward from the Texas Supreme Court’s anti-consumer bias. The Court’s pro-defendant penchant has put money in the pockets of mega-corporations who have, in turn, filled TLR’s coffers.”

Additionally, Scott Brister, a former Supreme Court justice turned lawyer for mega-polluter and work safety violator BP, spoke like someone who still has influence over the Court when he said that “We don’t look at a case and say, ‘Where can we help a company?’” (emphasis added)

Finally, the Court’s taxpayer-funded spokesman, Osler McCarthy, arrogantly dismisses criticism of the Court by attacking the report’s methodology of reviewing only those cases in which an opinion has been rendered, suggesting that including a cases denied review by the Court would balance the results. Mr. McCarthy ignores the fact that research from law professor David Anderson has already concluded that: “The cases in which the supreme court denied review were not predominantly plaintiff victories, and plaintiff success in the petitions-denied cases does not offset the defendant success rate in the decided cases.”

“Texas families deserve a fair shake at the Texas Supreme Court. Our research shows they just aren’t getting it,” said Winslow. “Texans deserve a Supreme Court willing to stand up to the special interests – not one that hides behind them.”

Texas Court Watch is a project of the Texas Watch Foundation, a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization. Content that appears on this page has been produced by the Texas Watch Foundation for research and public education purposes.

AUDIO: The Texas Supreme Court Has a Profound Effect on the Everyday Lives of Texans

Texas Watch — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:36:28 +0000

The Texas Supreme Court has a profound effect on the everyday lives of Texans. It is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters in the state. But according to a scathing report released this week by the advocacy group Texas Watch, over the last 10 years, the majority of Texas Supreme Court decisions have favored corporate interests over consumers. And the panel of judges, according to the report, has repeatedly overstepped its authority by overturning jury verdicts and interpreting the law to benefit the rich.

Listen: Texas Public Radio (Texas Matters, Segment 3)

Report: Texas Supreme Court Sides Against Consumers In 4 Out of 5 Cases

Texas Watch — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:33:03 +0000

Last August, ThinkProgress highlighted a Texas Watch report showing that the Texas Supreme Court “sided with consumers in 27 percent of cases involving an individual against a corporation or government agency — and it reversed jury verdicts in 72 percent of cases.” A new report by that same organization shows that the court’s favoritism towards corporations is now even worse.

AUDIO: Texas Families Deserve a Fair Shake at Texas Supreme Court & They Aren’t Getting It

Texas Watch — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:30:08 +0000

Listen to Court Watch director Alex Winslow talk about Court Watch’s latest report with Kristen Flowers of KTRH radio in Houston.

“Texas families deserve a fair shake when they go to the courthouse. And, when they make it to the highest court in the land, they’re just not getting that fair shake.”

Woe Is the Consumer Who Has to Go to the Texas Supreme Court

Texas Watch — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:36:15 +0000

Woe is the injured consumer or medical patient in Texas who brings a lawsuit against a big corporation or the government. A new report out from the nonprofit advocacy group Texas Watch has taken a hard look at more than 600 decisions by the Texas Supreme Court over the past decade and found that consumers and plaintiffs are routinely taking it on the chin. And consumers are losing far more often in the court than they were before short-lived GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry became governor.

Since 2005, consumers have lost nearly 80 percent of Texas Supreme Court cases in which a consumer was pitted against a big corporation or the government. Most of the time, the consumer plaintiffs had already prevailed before a jury—the high court overturned jury verdicts in 74 percent of consumer cases, with very little dissent.

Texas Watch attributes the massive scale-tilting to the fact that the court is now dominated by judges who were appointed by Perry starting in 2000. Six of the nine judges on the all-Republican court were initially appointed by Perry. In Texas, the judges are elected, but when a vacancy occurs, a governor can appoint a judge to fill out the remaining term, a move that all but guarantees the judge will prevail in the general election. And in Texas, Republican judges who’ve wanted to retire have often done so mid-term, allowing Perry to appoint their replacements.

Report: Supreme Court Pro-Business Bias Hurts Consumers

Texas Watch — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 20:03:42 +0000

The Texas Supreme Court over the last decade has morphed into an activist court driven by ideoloy and acting to benefit corporate interests, according to a report released today by consumer advocacy group Texas Watch.

The scathing report is the result of a review of 264 court decisions over the past 10 years and paints a picture of a court concerned only with giving more power to the powerful and trampling on the interests of Texas families in the process. The 9-judge panel, all Republican, “employs twisted logic and eviscerates long-standing precedent to achieve poltiical ends,” the report says.

Texas Watch found that when Gov. Rick Perry began making appointments in 2000, his picks made the court decidely more pro-business than it had been under George W. Bush, “subverting the rule of law from within and effectively turning the granite walls of the court into a mausoleum for plaintiffs.”