Department of Insurance in Court Over Emergency Homeowners Insurance Regs

There appears to be nothing up on the California Department of Insurance Web site yet, but I have received an e-mailed copy of a press release issued by the Department this morning. Commissioner Garamendi will be attending (or perhaps already has attended) a hearing in the Superior Court in Sacramento on several insurers' application for a preliminary injunction to stay the implementation of the "emergency" regulation previously noted here. A statement by the Commissioner will follow. (What that statement will be obviously depends on the nature of the Court's ruling.)

I will update this story, either here or in a subsequent post, as information reaches me.

UPDATE [4:37 pm, 8/22/03]:

The Commissioner's latest press release just arrived via e-mail, indicating that the judge hearing this case has taken the matter under submission with a decision to be issued later. Not a terribly unusual move in a hotly contested and potentiall controversial case. Commissioner Garamendi's statement -- which may or may not be accurate, but which I am not in any position to check against the record at the moment -- is as follows:

Today at this hearing the judge has delayed his decision and we're pleased with that. It is incomprehensible, it is beyond understanding, and it is beyond belief the argument that was made in the court today, ... that (the insurance industry) has the right to use inaccurate, out of date, erroneous information in pricing and underwriting homeowners insurance in the State of California.

There is no way that this Commissioner is going to allow that to happen. If the court (ultimately) rules against us and our emergency regulations, which are designed to protect the consumers of California from abusive insurance industry practices, we will appeal, and we will take every angle, every step possible to protect the consumers from an outrageous practice that the insurance industry has come to use in this state.

Further updates as information becomes available, most likely sometime next week . . . .