The "Farmers Insurance News-Alert" website is dedicated to providing the consumer and general public with detailed information concerning the Farmers Insurance Group. This includes fraud reports, consumer complaints, lawsuit's and other legal actions taken against this company. All information contained herein is for educational purposes only. Original sources, when known are sited.

 

WILSON PUSHES LAWSUIT RESTRICTIONS

Associated Press Thursday, March 9, 1995

Gov. Pete Wilson sought the help of California's insurance brokers and agents Wednesday for his proposals to limit punitive damages in liability suits and let judges, not juries, set awards.

Wilson also urged more than 1,000 participants in the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies' legislative conference to lobby the Legislature to enact limits on wrongful termination suits that he said "have made it too dangerous and too expensive to do business in California."

But the Republican governor received his most enthusiastic applause from the insurance agents for his proposal to enact a system of no-fault auto insurance in California.

''We have got to bring in no-fault auto insurance in California. That means getting the lawyers out of routine fender-benders," he said. "We have got to pass lawyer-free, no-fault auto insurance."

In a statistics-filled speech, Wilson expanded on the liability law reforms he outlined in his annual "State of the State" address to the Legislature in January.

He blamed "lawsuit abuse" for driving jobs from California and stifling research and product development in fields ranging from nuclear physics to AIDS research.

''The fear of liability is stifling needed AIDS research," he said. "We have to change a climate of lawsuit abuse in which awards have been unconscionably high."

''We have got to have clear and reasonable standards (for awarding damages in lawsuits, and we have to have them set by judges and not juries," Wilson said. "This is a national problem, but it's worse in California."

While Wilson's proposals were warmly received by his audience of insurance executives, they drew sharp criticism from trial lawyers.

 

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