Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Reverses Plan to Kill Auto Surcharge Appeals

In a last minute reversal of a plan which would have ended the right to appeal an automobile insurance "surcharge", Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner, Nonnie Burns, killed the idea, which - for now - leaves the Appeals Board intact. All I can say about this is: "Phew"!

Massachusetts is already among the most pathetically anti-consumer States in the Country, with $20,000 caps on liability for deaths caused by hospitals and their employees, and $100,000 caps against any governmental body found liable for negligence resulting in serious injury or death. So it was not exactly out of step for the Commonwealth to consider yet another way to strip its citizens of their legal rights - all in the name of saving money.

Under current Massachusetts law, the operator of a motor vehicle who suffers or causes at least two thousand dollars in property damage, and is believed by his insurance company to be a least 51% at fault for the accident, is "surcharged" a fee which remains payable for a number of years after the accident, even if the surcharged driver does not have another accident. The proposed elimination of the Surcharge Appeals Board would have left a wrongly surcharged driver without any reasonable right of appeal.

But what makes the Commissioner's original plan particulary scary, is the fact that approximately half of all surcharges are actually dismissed by the Appeals Board. Fifty percent! Think about that for a second. Here you have the Massachusetts Appeals Board tossing-out half the cases brought against Massachusetts motorists - and an insurance Commissioner who believes Massachusetts motorists don't deserve to have their appeals heard by a neutral party.

Even if only 10% of all appeals were overturned, that alone would - in my opinion - be more than sufficient to justify the right to an appeal hearing. Under Commissioner Burns' original plan, a motorist hit with a surcharge would have to request an appeal from the very insurance industry which stood to collect the surcharge. How "Massachusetts" is that? But alas... Commissioner Burns evidently responded to the outcry and left the Appeals Board breathing... at least for now.

Comments

[lucas law center]

Is there a chance to implement this.

LLCB

[Insurance Maniac]

Yes there is a chance, there is always a chance.