AIA PLEASED WITH 2005 SESSION

As the Arkansas General Assembly wound down in late April, completing its business for 2005, the American Insu-rance Association reported it reached its goals for the Arkansas session. Legislators will return for a sine die adjournment on May 13.

“AIA had two crucial goals this session. One was to prevent the enactment of legislation that would prohibit the use of credit information by insurers,” said John Marlow, AIA assistant vice president, southwest region. “To that end, AIA joined with other industry groups, and succeeded in defeating a measure (HB 1315) seeking to place a ban on the use of credit information by insurers for personal auto rating and underwriting.

“Our second major goal was to protect the tort reform measures that were enacted in 2003 from being eroded. As it turned out, the Arkansas trial bar introduced a so-called ‘insurance reform’ measure (HB 2075), which was clearly done in retaliation for the sweeping tort reforms enacted two years ago. Working jointly with the Department of Insurance (DOI) and other industry representatives, we developed SB 233 as an alternative to the extremely onerous ‘reform bill’ supported by the trial bar,” Marlow said.

“AIA is continuing to work with the DOI on the implementation of various provisions in SB 233, most notably those in the producer compensation section,” he said.