Insurance Trades Join Suit Against Oregon’s MVR Fee Increase
The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America have joined a lawsuit filed this week against the Oregon Departments of Administrative Services and Transportation to block the recently approved fee increase for motor vehicle records.
The Oregon Motor Vehicles Division recently increased the MVR fee from $2 per record to $9.68 per record without legislative approval, the groups argue.
NAMIC and PCI joined a complaint filed May 15 by the Oregon Trucking Association, the Associated General Contractors of Oregon, AAA of Oregon and individual insurance producers, contractors and truckers.
“NAMIC has joined the broad-based coalition that is legally challenging the recent MVR fee increase, because this 450% increase in the cost of procuring motor vehicle records necessary for insurers to provide auto insurance consumers with rates that fairly and accurately reflect the consumer’s personal risk of loss exposure is an unnecessary and unreasonable insurance rate cost driver, “Christian Rataj,NAMIC’s western state affairs manager said in a statement.
The plaintiffs have filed an initial petition as a complaint for declaratory judgment in the Marion County Circuit Court. The complaint argues three issues: The Oregon Department of Transportation lacks the authority to grant the Exclusive License to the Department of Administrative Services to provide internet services through a private vendor; the sum that ODOT receives for a driving record under the Exclusive License violates the trust obligations owed to the fund; ODOT and DAS’s use of driving records fees for purposes other than what was intended violates the trust’s obligations owed to the fund.