North Carolina property and liability insurers are taking their case to the public to impede an effort in the Legislature to change how monetary awards are determined in negligence cases.
The Insurance Federation of North Carolina has been running radio ads since the opening day of this year’s legislative session. The ads are intended to educate listeners on how a proposal to change the rule for negligence cases would raise their insurance rates if approved.
North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the group representing the state’s trial lawyers, wants North Carolina to join 46 other states that follow a variation of the comparative negligence or comparative fault standard.
Under comparative negligence, if a judge or jury determines the plaintiff is entitled to $100,000 in damages but finds the injured person 30 percent at fault and the defendant 70 percent to blame, the plaintiff is awarded 30 percent less, or $70,000.
In the current system using a “contributory negligence” standard, a plaintiff could recover nothing even if the person is only slightly to blame for what happened.
The commercial by the federation, whose members include Nationwide, Allstate, Geico and Travelers, cites a consultant’s report that automobile liability insurance costs will increase by at least 5 percent if the bill becomes law.
The trial lawyers cite another report showing insurance rates in South Carolina and Tennessee have grown more slowly than North Carolina’s rates since the surrounding states went to the comparative negligence standard in the early 1990s.
Topics Carriers North Carolina
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