Lawmakers are looking at several changes that could affect how much you pay for car insurance. Last week, auto insurers asked the state to raise rates 13 percent.
RALEIGH -- Lawmakers are looking at several changes that could affect how much you pay for car insurance. A special auto insurance committee continued to study the issue at the General Assembly on Wednesday.
When it comes to traffic court, the process is anything but speedy.
“You have some of the District Court judges saying when they walk into their courtrooms in downtown Raleigh, they've got 400 cases in there to be disposed between 9 a.m. and noon,” Jim Long, the state insurance commissioner, explained.
Overcrowding has led to leniency in some minds. A News & Observer study found that between 2001 and 2006, more than half of all speeding tickets were reduced and another 16 percent were dismissed altogether. Now there is a concern those stats are leading to unfair rates.
“If someone who is a high risk is not paying their premium, that means someone who is a good risk is paying more than they should,” Joe Stewart, an official with the N.C. Insurance Federation, said.
Now the Select House Committee on Auto Insurance Modernization will look at tightening up the laws and requiring points on your record even if you're given a Prayer for Judgment.
“They want to make sure if you're going to have that, points are applied like they would for speeding or anything else so the companies can apply the correct rate,” House majority leader Rep. Hugh Holliman added.
Others want to see changes beyond the court system. In fact, they want to change the entire way rates are set. Currently state law decides how certain traffic violations affect your insurance costs. Stewart believes changing the law would mean even lower rates for good drivers.
“The best system would probably be one that allows the insurance companies to decide which violations should make a difference in your premium,” Stewart said.
Insurance companies also want an independent voice in the rate-setting process, but Commissioner Long disagrees.
“If they don't like my decision, they can take it to the courts,” Long said, “and they've done that several times in my 23 years of doing this and they've lost every case.”
Currently the state has the sixth lowest insurance rates in the country. Last week, auto insurers asked the state to raise rates 13 percent. It’s the largest request in nearly 15 years. Commissioner Long must rule on that request within 50 days.