Defense Lawyers Call for TRIA Extension as Dec. 31 Approaches

DRI, the nation’s largest defense bar organization, is calling upon the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee to act immediately to place the question of extension of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (“TRIA”) before the Congress in the next 40 days.

DRI supports legislation that (1) extends TRIA until Dec. 31, 2007, to ensure an orderly transition to a long-term insurance solution to terrorism risk losses; and (2) provides for a Congressional or Presidential “Working Group or Commission” to develop a successor terrorism risk insurance program to TRIA.

DRI’s TRIA subcommittee published a compendium of analysis and resources on all aspects of this debate in April 2005. The subcommittee is composed of 40 leading lawyers, insurance professionals and terrorism coverage experts from the UK and the U.S., all of whom work on this initiative pro bono.

DRI — The Voice of the Defense Bar, based in Chicago, is a national organization of defense trial lawyers and corporate counsel. DRI provides numerous educational and informational resources to its more than 22,000 members. For more information, see DRI’s Web site at www.dri.org/.