Insurance Law

Hoodzpah, Part Deux: What will Hood say to these developments?

By David Rossmiller

You may have heard about this.  State Farm, citing an oppressive legal climate in Mississippi fostered in large part by Attorney General Jim Hood, wants to hike rates in Mississippi by 13 percent and will drop coverage for homes within 1,000 feet of the coast.  Here is a good AP story on developments, with State Farm saying the political and legal climate in the state is "simply untenable."  Anita Lee of the Sun Herald also has a good story, with State Farm's letter to Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, whom I met when I was in Mississippi in April -- I got along with him a lot better than I'm sure I would have with the hand-picked Dickie Scruggs candidate for Insurance Commissioner. 

The AP story says Hood wants to review the letter before commenting.  What? That's not like Hood, where's that gunslinger mentality when you need it to juice up a post? Surely he won't be able to keep quiet about this -- maybe he will call State Farm "unprofessional," as he did Judge Acker, or perhaps he will borrow from the Trailer Lawyers and call them "Snake Farm."   Maybe a staffer will come up with a new term for Hood to spew, like "Sneak Farm," "Stink Farm" or "Spite Farm."

Full post as published by Insurance Coverage Law Blog on June 12, 2008 (boomark / email).