Law Commons^™

Discrimination On Wheels: How Big Data Uses License Plate Surveillance To Put The Brakes On Disadvantaged Drivers, Nicole K. Mcconlogue

Law Faculty Scholarship

As scholarly discourse increasingly raises concerns about the negative societal effects of “fintech,” “dirty data,” and “technochauvinism,” a growing technology provides an instructive illustration of all three of these problems. Surveillance software companies are using automated license plate reader (ALPR) technology to develop predictive analytical tools. In turn, software companies market those tools to auto financers and insurers as a risk assessment input to evaluate consumers seeking to buy a car. Proponents of this technology might argue that more information about consumer travel habits will result in more accurate and individualized risk predictions, potentially increasing vehicle ownership among marginalized groups. …

The Color Of Property And Auto Insurance: Time For Change, Jennifer B. Wriggins

Faculty Publications

Insurance company executives issued statements condemning racism and urging change throughout society and in the insurance industry after the huge Black Lives Matter demonstrations in summer 2020. The time therefore is ripe for examining insurance as it relates to race and racism, including history and current regulation. Two of the most important types of personal insurance are property and automobile. Part I begins with history, focusing on property insurance, auto insurance, race, and racism in urban areas around the mid-twentieth century. Private insurers deemed large areas of cities where African Americans lived to be “blighted” and refused to insure all …

Do Credit-Based Insurance Scores Proxy For Income In Predicting Auto Claim Risk?, Darcy Steeg Morris, Daniel Schwarcz, Joshua C. Teitelbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Auto insurers often use credit-based insurance scores in their underwriting and rating processes. The practice is controversial—many consumer groups oppose it, and most states regulate it, in part out of concern that insurance scores proxy for policyholder income in predicting claim risk. We offer new evidence on this issue in the context of auto insurance. Prior studies on the subject suffer from the limitation that they rely solely on aggregate measures of income, such as the median income in a policyholder's census tract or zip code. We analyze a panel of households that purchased auto and home policies from a …

Mandates, Markets, And Risk: Auto Insurance And The Affordable Care Act, Jennifer Wriggins

Faculty Publications

Now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual health insurance mandate has been upheld by the United States Supreme Court, it is an opportune time to examine precedents for the individual mandate that were not considered in the legislative debate or litigation about the ACA’s constitutionality, particularly auto insurance mandates. Although opponents’ arguments were cast largely as Commerce Clause claims, the arguments have a deeper foundation as claims about liberty and coercion which go far beyond the Commerce Clause. Although auto insurance mandates are obviously different, particularly in that they are state rather than federal, auto insurance mandates can help …

Claims And Coverage In Montana For Damage To A Victim's Family Members, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article explores those situations in which Montana tort law now recognizes secondary injuries to family members resulting from primary severe injuries or death of another family member, which recognition may invoke additional auto insurance coverage. The article first makes a short survey of the development of Montana tort law insofar as it has come to take cognizance of family injuries. The article then looks at the application of insurance law to those claims with special emphasis on recent cases.

Defeating The "Step-Down" Clause In Auto Insurance, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article addresses the increasingly occurring situations where "step-down" clauses are inserted in auto policies to defeat coverage for particular classes of claimants. The article points out that step-down clauses that reduce the recovery of family members to minimum limits and protection of permissive users to minimum limits are subject to challenge for being unfair, unconscionable, violative of public policy, violative of reasonable expectations, and for creating ambiguity in an auto policy, and as such, need to be scrutinized by the Montana Supreme Court.

Voiding Auto Insurance Clauses For Violating Public Policy, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article addresses how a lawyer faced with an unambiguous auto insurance policy provision detrimental to his insured or claimant may analyze the provision to determine if it is potentially void and unenforceable.

Exposing "Illusory" Underinsured Motorist Coverage, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article addresses auto insurers that use the "narrow" Underinsured Motorist Vehicle definition and couples it with a "reducing clause." The article discusses the conflict between what the declarations page promises and the UIM benefit the policy will actually pay and argues that the definition and reducing clause violate the consumer's expectations and defeat the very purpose of UIM coverage causing an injustice to the insured who has been prudent enough to purchase UIM coverage to guard against the tortfeasor who carries minimum limits. The article urges attorneys to persuade the courts in Montana to invalidate the narrow definition and …

Obtaining Separate Limits Of Auto Coverage For Each "Occurrence" Or "Accident", Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article examines the issue of what constitutes an "accident" or "occurrence" in auto liability policies that limit the insurer's liability for indemnity, defense, or other benefits to a set amount per "accident" or "occurrence." The article reviews a selection of cases from other jurisdictions because there is little Montana law delineating single "accidents" or "occurrences" for purposes of auto insurance. The article concludes with a list of factors that may be determinative and should be argued on the issue of whether there are multiple "accidents" or "occurrences" for purposes of triggering additional limits of auto insurance coverage.

The Constitutional Attack On Montana's Anti-Stacking Statute, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article presents MTLA member Randy Bishop's amicus curiae arguments that challenge the validity of the Montana anti-stacking statute under four provisions of the Montana Constitution. The argument was written in support of the plaintiff in Hardy v. Progressive Specialty Insurance Company.

The Duty Of The Agent Or Broker To Recommend Underinsured Motorist Coverage With Adequate Limits, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article addresses the question of whether an insurance agent or broker have any duty in Montana to recommend a particular coverage in a specific adequate amount. More specifically, the article explores what the agent or broker's duty is, if any, to recommend that the insured purchase UIM coverage and do so with an adequate limit of liability. Although the article focuses on the agent's duty to explain and recommend auto UIM coverage, the law and arguments discussed can be extrapolated to other coverage lines such as homeowners or commercial general liability.

The Case Against Montana's Anti-Stacking Statute, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article begins by noting that the 1997 anti-stacking statute is the number one problem faced by plaintiff's' counsel in Montana in attempting to secure adequate compensation for clients' injuries arising out of the operation of automobiles. The article charges that the brutal economics of the 1997 anti-stacking statute, which prohibits consumers from obtaining the benefit of multiple coverages for which they paid while allowing insurers a windfall by permitting them to collect multiple and ever increasing premiums for no coverage, has compelled attorneys to attack the statute.

The article presents a status report of a compendium of "stacking" cases …

The "Household" Or "Family" Exclusion In Auto Policies, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article examines the household or family exclusion in casualty policies and how the Montana Supreme Court has responded to challenges to the exclusion. The article concludes that if attorneys adequately prepare the challenge, the courts in Montana will scrutinize the exclusion carefully.

"Stacking" In Montana In 1999, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article discusses the status of stacking, the aggregation of coverages by reason of multiple autos insured under a single policy as well as multiple autos insured under separate policies as long as the autos are insured with the same company, in Montana in 1999.

Invalidating Auto Insurance Provisions In Montana, Greg Munro

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article reviews cases in which the Montana Supreme Court has invalidated or limited provisions of the standard auto policies. The article discusses three grounds when the Court generally has invalidated auto insurance provisions: 1) on ground of public policy per the Mandatory Liability Protection Act; 2) on ground of public policy per the Uninsured Motorist statute; and 3) on ground of defeating insurance consumer's reasonable expectations. The article concludes that the list of auto insurance policy provisions invalidated by the Montana Supreme Court is extensive, confirming the Court's commitment to test insurance provisions to ensure they comport with public …

Recent Case Developments, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Recent case developments in Insurance law in the year 1998-1999.

Disability And Income Loss Benefits Under The Minnesota No-Fault Act, Michael K. Steenson

Faculty Scholarship

The Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance Act was intended to ensure the “prompt payment of specific basic economic loss benefits to victims of automobile accidents without regard to whose fault caused the accident,” to prevent overcompensation of less seriously injured people by the interposition of tort thresholds, and to encourage appropriate medical and rehabilitation treatment by assuring prompt payment for that treatment. It seems clear that at least some of the initial promise of the Act has not been fulfilled. Payment of basic economic loss benefits, which the legislature intended to be paid promptly, has become bogged down in a quagmire …

Proposition 103 And Automobile Insurance, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Proposition 103, September 8, 1989, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Implementation Of Proposition 103, August 28, 1989, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Ralph Nader Gives Recommendations On Insurance Reform Post Proposition 103, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

State Farm Insurance Company Rate Increase And The Insolvency Of Coastal Insurance Company, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Hearing On Enforcement Of Proposition 103 By The Insurance Department, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Hearing On Update On Enforcement Of Proposition 103, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Hearing On Proposition 103 Insurance Reform, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Insurance Companies' Post Proposition 103 Marketing Practices, Senate Committee On Insurance, Claims And Corporations

California Senate

No abstract provided.