Online Comments

The reader comments listed below were posted on Insurance Journal’s Web site. You may review any referenced article by visiting www.insurancejournal.com.

Compensation * East News * May 23, 2005

Do we restrict multi-national companies from making profits? Is it wrong for brokers to make a living? Do buyers request profit information from other vendors? Don’t other salespersons get incentives from various manufacturers for volume sales? Shouldn’t our association leaders stand up like men against these accusers and fight for what is right? – Mark Kottler, Boca Raton, Fla.

Tort Costs * National News * May 18, 2005

The only crisis that exists is insurance carriers not paying on claims across the board. 80% of all litigation is because of that fact. Even with that being said ask all of the house counsel of Allstate, Farmers and 21st Century who were just laid off here in California because of lack of work whether there is a litigation crisis. If there is one, it did not hit their now empty desks. The tort “crisis” is a figment of Bush et.als., imagination. Business does not want anybody playing in their money sandbox and so therefore a false crisis is created much like we saw with the Iraq war to convince the uinformed that reform must take place in the world of tort. If the reform does not take place, our economic world will collapse. People continue to give up their rights, be they privacy rights or tort rights because someone with a bible wrapped with the American flag says that is what they should do. Even giving up our right to a secure border trumps the right of business to have access to cheap labor. One of these days we as a country will wake up to see the harm this administration is foisting on each one of us in the name of freedom, liberty and the pursuit of unfettered profits for the business community. The insurance industry needs no help from government. Consumers do need help fighting an industry that is bloated with profits. AIG is just one of many examples. I need not go further. I know this is not flattering for the industry and I don’t expect this to be posted in your print edition. – Chris Russell, Lake Forest, Calif.

Bogus Policies * Insurance

Journal.com/magazines/features * 2004

Is there any updated information about the Manning Riddell case? I was issued bogus certificates also. I retained a law firm to represent me but they dropped off of the case after informing me that my interests were being represented by the California Insurance Commission. I suppose the net result is that I and some one thousand other victims have been had. – Melvin Peyton, Hurricane, W. Va.