Posted On: March 15, 2006, 6:52 pm CST

Posted By: Tony Mauhar

I'm not ashamed of being an attorney and even identify myself in these posts. I spent 17 years in small town private practice representing all type clients, insurance plaintiff and defendants.For the past five years I've represented state government programs.

Knee jerk lawyer hating statements generally reflect fear and ignorance.
The anonymous lawyer hating vitrolic comments of bill , john , and LL reflect ignorance of the real forces underlying perpetual insurance industry premium increases . A deeper analysis of historical insurance rate escalation would focus on the role of the re-insurance industry dominated by Lloyd's, et al. Just because the re-insurers want greater and greater profits doesn't mean the "greedy" lawyers caused the problem.

And the "poor agent" selling those policies operates on the same profit motive: Get it as quick as you can for as long as you can.

If I wanted to be critical of insurance agents I'd ask them how many times after a policy is sold and mailed to the insured , you know about 30- 45 days later, does the selling agent contact their customer to schedule an appointment to go over the exclusions from coverage?

Another observation based on my own experience of visiting marinas and consistently having the largest yachts pointed out as owned by salesmen of various stripes including insurance folks.

If you want another read on the insurance industry, I invite you to rent the 90's movie "Weekend at Bernies".