W. Va. Judge to Decide: Should E-Mails Discussing Premium Rollbacks Be Made Public?

West Virginia Circuit Court Judge Paul Zakaib is expected to decide Friday whether or not to make public the contents of emails detailing negotiations between the West Virginia Insurance Commission, an aide to Governor Joe Manchin and insurance companies. The emails discuss premium rollbacks some of the state’s largest insurers promised to enact after lawmakers limited residents’ ability to sue insurance companies.

According to the Charleston Gazette, for the last few weeks, plaintiff’s lawyers have been clamoring to see the specific promises Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline outlined in a series of e-mails to Brian Kastick, an aide to Gov. Joe Manchin, on Feb. 22 and 23.

“I think the public should know who’s going to get what,” said Al Karlin, a Morgantown lawyer who sued Cline for the promises she detailed in her e-mails.

So far, the Insurance Commission and the Manchin administration have managed to keep the insurance companies’ specific offers secret by blacking out numbers, words and whole sentences from copies of Cline’s e-mails obtained by Karlin and the Gazette through the Freedom of Information Act.

The Manchin administration says the details of the offers are not public information because they are trade secrets.

During a hearing Thursday, Kanawha Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib indicated he did not agree.

“A promise or what appears to be a promise to reduce premiums is not a trade secret,” he said.

In recent weeks, the Manchin administration’s Insurance Commission has been fighting to keep much of its research and discussion about third-party bad-faith lawsuits out of the public eye.

Third-party bad-faith lawsuits are controversial. People use the cause of action to sue other people’s insurance companies for not settling with them in a fair, timely fashion. Business groups and insurers say the lawsuits hurt the state’s economy. Consumer groups and plaintiff’s lawyers say average citizens use the cause of action to protect themselves from being bullied by insurance companies.

Topics Carriers Legislation Virginia West Virginia