Connecticut Voices for Civil Justice

Hartford - When Connecticut state legislators passed a series of medical malpractice insurance and litigation reforms in 2005 (Public Act 05-275), considerable debate ensued regarding the cause of skyrocketing insurance premiums paid by doctors.   While convincing evidence supported the view that insurance company profits and the normal business cycle were the cause of these increased […]

Per statutory guidelines, the Department of Insurance has released their report on medical malpractice closed claims. Some data does appear to be incomplete as some carriers did not report their closed claims, added to the fact that claims that were closed with a settlement do not breakdown damages by economic (e.g. medical expenses, etc.) and […]

Governor Rell went inside the insurance industry in her proclaimed “national” search to find a replacement for Susan Cogswell, who Rell asked to resign after winning reelection last year.
Rell chose Thomas R. Sullivan of Southington, a senior vice president of The Hartford’s subsidiary Specialty Risk Services LLC, who has more than 20 years’ experience in […]

The New Britain Herald wrote up a story today on a woman who was arrested for defrauding the workers’ compensation system. Evidently, she forged medical documents that ended up giving her a windfall of $2,000.
While I won’t doubt the existence of fraudulent workers’ compensation claims, it is ridiculous to even look at this woman […]

The Associated Press reports on the 2006 financial data of the major insurance firms. And this is what they find out:
Allstate reported a record $5 billion profit for 2006. State Farm Insurance’s profit climbed 65 percent for the year. St. Paul Travelers’ earnings rose sixfold in the fourth quarter, American International Group’s rose eightfold.
A […]

The Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association certainly doesn’t have the combined public relations resources of the Chambers of Commerce, the manufacturers, the drug companies, the insurance industry and these industries’ sock puppets, the doctors. But we do have compelling stories to tell and victims of tragedy to tell them. Compared to the frightening, overblown rhetoric coming […]

From Tortdeform:
In light of the recent announcement that State Farm Insurance is no longer writing new homeowners’ insurance in Mississippi, I thought it was important to re-ground the issue in the life realities of those affected by State Farm’s pattern of denying meritorious claims.
CNN Presents: The Town That Fought Back, Part 1

CNN Presents: The Town […]

Cyrus Dugger of Tortdeform posted this morning about the CNN clip on auto insurance fraud.
Here it is.

Today, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association (CTLA) sent out a press release regarding the recent and upcoming reports on CNN that illustrate how difficult it can be for auto accident victims to get fair compensation from insurance companies, even in seemingly straightforward and minor cases.
CTLA is trying to promote CNN’s 18-month investigation on auto insurers […]

CNN is reporting on a profitable strategy Allstate and State Farm developed in the mid-90’s to boost profits by making it look like victims are defrauding the insurers. Ultimately, their aim was to make fighting the company “so expensive and so time-consuming that lawyers would start refusing clients” with the theme being to “deny, […]