MASS. LLJUA TO WRITE HIGHER LIMITS:

The Liquor Liability Joint Underwriting Authority (LLJUA) of Massachusetts has taken advantage of a new law and filed to write higher occurrence policy limits of $1 million/$1 million. By law, the LLJUA had been limited to writing $500,000/$1 million limits but a bill recently signed into law removes the 15-year old statutory limit and gives the LLJUA leeway to offer higher occurrence limits after approval of rates by the commissioner of insurance. Charles Bucke, LLJUA president, said his organization felt the higher limits were necessary because some customers were having difficulty obtaining excess umbrellas based on the lower limits. “We think this will satisfy more umbrella carriers,” Bucke explained. He said the LLJUA hopes for approval in time to begin offering the higher limits by Oct. 1 but there is no indication if approval will be received by then. LLJUA is a liquor liability insurer of last-resort. To be eligible for coverage from LLJUA, the business owner has to be turned down for coverage three times in the voluntary market. The LLJUA wrote about 1,275 policies in 2003 and is on track to write about 1,500 for 2004, according to Bucke.