Miami Herald reports that Gov. Charlie Crist has appointed three high-powered lawyers to file a class-action lawsuit against the insurance industry on behalf of state residents.
Crist said his legal office has engaged the help of Roberto Martinez, the former U.S. attorney from Miami who chaired Crist’s transition team; Dexter Douglass, the former general counsel to Gov. Lawton Chiles who worked on the state’s litigation against the tobacco industry, and Bob Hackleman, a Fort Lauderdale trial lawyer with Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, the former firm of Crist’s chief of staff. The lawyers will work at no cost to the state, Crist said.
Martinez said his firm has been asked “to look at information relating to the rates being charged for property insurance in the state of Florida to determine whether there is the basis for legal action.”
At the core of the dispute is a law enacted last January that provided billions in additional cheap reinsurance to private insurers in return for a requirement that they pass on the savings to consumers.
Many companies have lowered their rates but ”those that have not should be accountable,” Crist said.
