Allstate Boosts Rates.Allstate Insurance, the state's second-largest auto insurer An individual or company who, through a contractual agreement, undertakes to compensate specified losses, liability, or damages incurred by another individual. An insurer is frequently an insurance company and is also known as an underwriter. , is raising California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). drivers' premiums 6.9 percent in a move that is expected to trigger other insurance companies to follow suit. Allstate is the largest California insurer to raise its rates after years of price-cutting in the 1990s reduced overall premiums by more than 10 percent statewide. Allstate, which insures 2.1 million California drivers, lowered had its rates by 22 percent from 1996 to 1999. Insurers have been predicting that auto insurance rates would rise since last spring. At that time, analysts said the California price war had gone too far, and a trade group warned that higher medical costs and jury awards would force premiums up nationwide. Allstate blamed a rise in the number and severity of accidents for the increase, which is scheduled to take effect May 18. Rate changes of less than 7 percent do not require a hearing before the state Department of Insurance and usually are approved automatically by state regulators. The increase would add about $48 to an annual $700 premium. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. jury awarded Allstate Corp. $8.2 million in a landmark fraud case involving nine medical clinics accused of billing for treatments that were never rendered. It was the first case tried under a 1995 California law California Law consists of 29 codes, covering various subject areas, the State Constitution and Statutes. See also
adj. Tending to deter: deterrent weapons. n. 1. Something that deters: a deterrent to theft. 2. effect on doctors who falsify falsify, v to forge; to give a false appearance to anything, as to falsify a record. billings or provide unnecessary treatments, fraud that costs policyholders billions of dollars. In 1999, Allstate filed suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against six doctors who ran nine Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, clinics. Allstate accused the doctors and clinics of altering medical records and bills to support insurance claims or personal-injury lawsuits against the insurer and its policyholders. Allstate settled with three of the doctors for $180,000 and pursued the other three in court, officials said. The jury deliberated for about two weeks before finding the doctors liable for fraud. |
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