CONTACT: Doug Heller, 310-392-0522, ext. 309; or Naomi Seligman, 310-392-0522, ext. 318

Santa Monica, CA — Struggling with months of negative publicity because it has been exposed for discriminating and illegal overcharging of its customers, Mercury Insurance this week has poured another $2 million into its campaign for Prop 17 on the June ballot.

Mercury is throwing millions more into its proposition to contend with high-profile editorial boards across the state that have come out squarely against Prop 17 including most recently, the Los Angeles Times, the Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle and Long Beach Press-Telegram. More editorials can be read here: http://www.stopprop17.org/editorials/

Mercury, which has been airing radio ads for months, is expected to launch its first wave of television commercials shortly. Prop 17 would allow insurance companies to increase premiums for California drivers based on their history of purchasing auto insurance.

“Mercury wants to hide behind millions and millions of dollars in deceptive advertising to pass its self-serving initiative,” said Doug Heller with Stop Prop 17.  “Voters can be sure of one thing: insurance companies don’t spend millions on a ballot measure to save Californians money.”

To date, Mercury has spent $7.25 million on its Prop 17 campaign.

Regulators Find Wide Ranging Violations by Mercury

Earlier this month, the California Department of Insurance announced that it recently finalized a major investigation of Mercury and turned up 54 different violations, including illegal surcharging of consumers, failing to give customers proper discounts and failing to correct errors from prior investigations despite company promises to do so. The Department has filed a “Notice of Noncompliance” lawsuit against Mercury and could fine the company millions of dollars and force Mercury to make refunds to thousands of customers.   More information about the Department investigation is available at http://bit.ly/9GMtFl

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For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

Los Angeles, CA — The California Democratic Party voted today to oppose Prop 17 on the June ballot.  Prop 17 would allow car insurance companies to increase premiums for millions of California drivers based on their history of purchasing auto insurance.  At its weekend convention in Los Angeles, the Democratic Party joined consumer, labor, senior and veterans groups fighting the deceptive ballot measure funded by Mercury Insurance, California’s third largest auto insurer.  To date, Mercury has spent $5.25 million on its Prop 17 campaign.

“The Democratic Party voted to stand with consumers against a self-serving insurance company that is trying to buy an election so it can charge drivers higher premiums,” said consumer advocate Doug Heller with the Stop Prop 17 campaign.  ”Opposing Prop 17 is a no-brainer for anyone who allies themselves with average Californians ahead of insurance companies.”

Prop 17 would create an insurance surcharge on drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years, or who missed a single payment. Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for car insurance when they sought to restart coverage. Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing such a surcharge in California.

Other opponents of Prop 17 include: Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, VoteVets.org, California Nurses Association, California Federation of Teachers, California Labor Federation, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of California, and the California Alliance of Retired Americans.

Last week, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced an administrative lawsuit against Prop 17 sponsor Mercury Insurance in response to findings of widespread overcharges and illegal discrimination by the company.  Mercury’s reputation for cheating policyholders is also reflected in the company’s consistently low J.D. Power customer satisfaction ranking.  Read more about the Insurance Commissioner’s Mercury investigation and lawsuit at: http://bit.ly/akp7aJ .

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For more information, please visit:  http://StopProp17.org or find us on twitter at:  http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

CONTACT: Naomi Seligman, 310-392-0522, ext. 318; or Doug Heller, ext. 309

Consumer Advocates Urge CA Democratic Party to Oppose Prop 17 at This Weekend’s State Convention

Santa Monica, CA –  This week, the California Labor Federation joined a growing list of organizations in opposition to Proposition 17, the Mercury Insurance-sponsored measure that would allow insurance companies to raise drivers’ premiums based on their history of buying auto insurance.

Prop 17 is also opposed by consumer and citizen groups including Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of California, California Alliance of Retired Americans and VoteVets.org.  Click here to see the full list of Stop Prop 17 coalition partners.

The California Labor Federation is made up of more than 1,200 AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions, representing 2.1 million union members in manufacturing, retail, construction, hospitality, public sector, health care, entertainment and other industries.

Doug Heller, with the Stop Prop 17 campaign, said today, “Labor organizations that represent millions of California’s working families have joined the fight to stop this insurance industry ripoff that will increase the price of auto insurance. While Mercury Insurance will spend millions of dollars to try and buy this election, groups representing millions of Californians will be warning voters to oppose Prop 17.”

This weekend the Democratic Party of California, at its convention, will decide whether to oppose Prop 17. Party delegates are being urged to join labor, consumer, senior and veterans groups and oppose this insurance company funded initiative.

Earlier this week, the California Department of Insurance issued a scathing report about Prop 17 sponsor Mercury Insurance’s history of overcharging and discriminating against customers and the company’s failure to make promised changes after similar investigations in 1998 and 2002. The Department has filed an administrative lawsuit against Mercury.

“Democratic party members should take a strong stand against an industry bully with a nasty track record of cheating Calfiornia drivers that is now running a deceptive campaign in order to raise auto insurance premiums on Californians already struggling in a tough economy,” said Heller.

Prop 17 would create an insurance surcharge on drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years, or who missed a single payment. Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for car insurance when they sought to restart coverage. Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing such a surcharge in California.

Mercury Insurance has spent over $5.25 million on its campaign for Prop 17 to date.

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CONTACT: Doug Heller, 310-480-4170; or Naomi Seligman, 310-617-4577 (in San Francisco today)

Santa Monica, CA – Hoping to distract voters from yesterday’s government crackdown on Mercury Insurance’s illegal overcharges, Mercury pumped $1.75 million into its campaign for Prop 17 on the June ballot and is expected to launch its first wave of television commercials. Prop 17 would allow insurance companies to increase premiums for California drivers based on their history of purchasing auto insurance.

“Mercury is trying to buy this election with millions of dollars and hoping that its deceptive ads will drown out the ugly facts about the company and its Prop 17 initiative,” said Naomi Seligman with Stop Prop 17.  ”An insurance company that got caught illegally surcharging its own customers cannot be trusted as it tries to sell Prop 17 with phony claims and false promises.”

To date, Mercury has spent $5.25 million on its Prop 17 campaign.

Regulators Find Wide Ranging Violations by Mercury

Yesterday, the California Department of Insurance announced that it recently finalized a major investigation of Mercury and turned up 54 different violations, including illegal surcharging of consumers, failing to give customers proper discounts and failing to correct errors from prior investigations despite company promises to do so. The Department has filed a “Notice of Noncompliance” lawsuit against Mercury and could fine the company millions of dollars and force Mercury to make refunds to thousands of customers.   More information about the Department investigation is available at http://bit.ly/9GMtFl

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For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

Santa Monica, CA –The California Department of Insurance (CDI) today said that Mercury Insurance Company, the sponsor of Proposition 17, has overcharged and discriminated against California customers for over fifteen years, including failing to deliver discounts required by state law and imposing unlawful surcharges.

Consumer advocates said that the new CDI report is certain to affect voters’ view of Proposition 17, Mercury’s controversial initiative on the June ballot.

“This troubling report shows that Mercury Insurance has overcharged its policyholders for a decade and half, but now it wants the voters to believe it is spending millions on Proposition 17 to charge less for auto insurance,” said Harvey Rosenfield, author of insurance reform Proposition 103 and founder of Consumer Watchdog. “These new revelations show Mercury Insurance’s promise that Proposition 17 will lower premiums is like Bernie Madoff backing a ballot proposition to protect investors.”

CDI announced that it filed an administrative lawsuit against Mercury last Friday and gave it ten days to correct every violation of law identified in its investigation or face massive fines.  The lawsuit and underlying investigation can be downloaded at: http://bit.ly/afestj

In its latest investigation, which began in March, 2007, CDI found that Mercury improperly applied surcharges to its customers, failed to give customers the discounts they were due, discriminated against people with certain medical conditions, and refused to insure applicants based on their occupation.

The Department also determined that Mercury had violated its own agreement to stop violations that were uncovered by CDI investigations completed in 1998 and 2002. More information about those investigations is available here:  http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/insurance/articles/?storyId=32615

“How can voters trust an insurance company that violated its own promise to regulators to stop breaking the law?” Rosenfield asked. “This report should be the nail in Prop 17’s coffin. Voters won’t stand for a lying insurance company deceiving them once again.”

Mercury wrote, and has spent $3.5 million on, Proposition 17 on the June ballot, which would allow insurance companies to add a new surcharge on drivers’ premiums based on whether or not they previously purchased auto insurance, even if they didn’t drive, or missed an insurance payment. The company’s commercials are telling people that Prop 17 would lower auto insurance premiums.

Among the 54 practices identified by the CDI in today’s report as potential violations of state law are numerous practices that violate Proposition 103, the 1988 voter approved insurance reform measure that Mercury’s Proposition 17 targets.

Among the practices uncovered by state investigators:

• Mercury continues to surcharge certain people (by 15%) who are required to carry proof of insurance coverage – a violation of existing law. Mercury’s Proposition 17 would legalize such surcharges and allow insurance companies to apply them across the board.

• Mercury fails to give customers the discounts they are entitled to under state law.

• Mercury instructed its agents to refuse to sell binding coverage to people who are handicapped or whose health is impaired.

• Mercury charges people for accidents for which they were not at fault.

• Mercury refuses to sell insurance to artisans who are good drivers, or to painters, cocktail waitresses, waiters and bartenders who are not eligible for good driver status.

• Mercury prematurely cancelled policies issued to people entitled to buy inexpensive policies under the Low Cost Automobile Insurance Plan – even though Mercury claims that the availability of such policies will lessen the impact that Prop 17 will have on uninsured motorists.

In addition to illegal overcharging of its customers and other misbehavior by the company identified by the CDI, Mercury Insurance has consistently received among the lowest J.D. Power rankings among large insurers. In the most recent survey, available at http://bit.ly/9WyEbv , Mercury was ranked 27 of 32 companies in terms of overall customer satisfaction.

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For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

StopProp17.org and Brave New Films Team Up On Video-Spoof Of Mercury’s Campaign

Santa Monica, CA – Mercury Insurance’s campaign for Prop 17 is making a large television advertisement buy, according to sources who shared the information with the Campaign for Consumer Rights. The grassroots campaign against Prop 17 has learned that Mercury Insurance is preparing to begin airing its first TV spot within the next several days.

Mercury Insurance is the sponsor and 99% funder of Proposition 17 on the June ballot, which would give auto insurance companies a new way to raise premiums on California drivers.

“Mercury Insurance will soon be all over the airwaves with deceptive ads that will never mention the true cost of Prop 17,” said Doug Heller with Campaign for Consumer Rights. “Mercury will spare no expense in its campaign and hopes voters will not notice that the promises of Prop 17’s savings are actually being made by an insurance company that is spending millions on the initiative.”

New Brave New Films Video Spoofs Mercury’s Prop 17 Campaign

Just as Mercury is preparing to launch its expensive ad campaign, the grassroots campaign against Prop 17 has launched a new video spoofing the insurance company’s pitch to Californians. The video, produced by filmmaker Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films, follows a Mercury salesman as he tries to convince voters that an insurance company would finance Prop 17 just to help Californians. The video is available at:  http://bit.ly/daI8vS

“Prop 17 is an April Fool’s Joke on California voters,” said Heller. “Mercury Insurance is spending millions on Prop 17 so Mercury can make more money, and it wants California drivers to pick up the tab.”

CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO

Prop 17 would create an insurance surcharge on drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years, or who missed a single payment. Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for car insurance when they sought to restart coverage. Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing such a surcharge in California.

Prop 17 is opposed by consumer and citizen groups including Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of California, California Alliance of Retired Americans and VoteVets.org.

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For more information, please visit:  http://StopProp17.org – or find us on twitter at:  http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

Contact: Doug Heller 310-392-0522 ext. 309

Santa Monica, CA – Mercury Insurance’s treatment of its policyholder Amerigraphics, a printing and graphics business in of Sherman Oaks, California, was “despicable” according to a Court of Appeal ruling issued earlier this week.  Mercury Insurance is the sponsor and 99% funder of Proposition 17 on the June ballot, which would give auto insurance companies a new way to raise premiums on California drivers.

The Court’s strong language came in the case Amerigraphics, Inc. v. Mercury Casualty Co. (Case #B208654).  Mercury had appealed the case after being found to have engaged in bad faith with “malice, fraud or oppression” for refusing to pay a reasonable claim in a timely manner after its policyholder’s business was flooded.

“Mercury tries to spin the facts,” the Court explained in its decision.  But, the court also wrote, “the evidence showed that Mercury was intentionally dishonest and showed a conscious disregard of Amerigraphics’s rights.”

“Voters shouldn’t trust a ballot initiative fully funded by a company that judges called ‘dishonest’ and ‘despicable’ in its treatment of policyholders,”  said Doug Heller with Stop Prop 17.  “Mercury’s multi-million dollar campaign to sell Prop 17 and the auto insurance surcharges it would allow is just as dishonest as Mercury’s treatment of its customers.”

The Court upheld the ruling in favor of Amerigraphics, though it reduced the jury-awarded punitive damages Mercury had to pay, from $1.7 million to $500,000, in order to comply with Court-mandated limits on damage awards.  The decision can be downloaded at: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/AmerigraphicsVMercury032310.pdf

Earlier this year, the California Department of Insurance released documents exposing more than a decade of bad behavior by Mercury.  In the reports, the Department found that Mercury had written and unwritten rules to surcharge or deny policies to members of the military, self-employed customers, the unemployed and unmarried people living together.  Describing Mercury’s behavior in a 2009 legal action against the company, government regulators wrote: “Mercury has a deserved reputation for abusing its customers and intentionally violating the law with arrogance and indifference.”

Prop 17: Another Way to Abuse California Insurance Customers
Prop 17 would create an insurance surcharge on drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years, or who missed a single payment.  Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for car insurance when they sought to restart coverage.  Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing such a surcharge in California.

The initiative is opposed by consumer and citizen groups including Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of California, California Alliance of Retired Americans and VoteVets.org.

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For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org – or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury – and facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

Consumer Advocate Challenges Insurance Executive Behind Prop 17 to Debate Initiative at Legislative Hearing

Harvey Rosenfield to Mercury Insurance Chairman: Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is

Santa Monica, CA — The founder of Consumer Watchdog today challenged George Joseph, the founder and chair of Mercury Insurance, to show up to a legislative hearing in Sacramento to publicly defend his ballot initiative, Proposition 17. Prop 17, which would allow insurance companies to raise premiums on drivers based on their history of buying auto insurance, is 99% funded by Mercury and a particular focus of Joseph’s decades long effort to evade accountability to consumers.

Harvey Rosenfield wrote to Joseph today urging him to stop hiding behind his public relations flacks, front groups and radio ads and attend next Wednesday’s joint hearing of the California Assembly Insurance Committee and Senate Banking, Finance and Insurance Committee to explain why voters in California should trust Mercury Insurance and its quest to enact Prop 17.

In his letter to Joseph, Rosenfield points out that the insurance executive has privately defended his initiative in recent calls to several people who have spoken out against Prop 17.  Now Joseph has an obligation to come forward and publicly defend this culmination of a decade-long attack on state consumer protections, Rosenfield writes.

“The time has come for you to stop hiding behind your paid surrogates and defend your Captain Ahab-like quest to surcharge and discriminate against motorists before the public…This is not like one of those legislative hearings where you can do your dirty work through lobbyists and donations to the politicians. Will you be there to defend publicly what you are saying privately, or will it be another one of your flunkies who does your bidding?

“I’ll be waiting to see if you have the courage to face me and our publicly elected officials. If you don’t, sir, you have no business sponsoring a ballot measure in this state.”

In the letter, which can be found at http://bit.ly/bDUl7s, Rosenfield notes state agency reports on Mercury’s history of discrimination, fines by state regulators and that Mercury ranks at the bottom of the most recent JD Power customer satisfaction survey: 27th of 32 large auto insurers.

Rosenfield suggests that Joseph fears voters will not trust his campaign to pass Prop 17 if Californians learned more about the company funding the initiative.

“Are you hiding because you are concerned that your sorry record might actually affect the public’s view of your initiative?…Come out from behind the gilded boardroom doors and let’s have an honest and thorough public discussion about Prop 17.”

Proposition 17 would create an insurance surcharge on drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years, or who missed a payment.  Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for car insurance when they sought to restart coverage.  Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing the surcharge in California.

The initiative is opposed by consumer and citizen groups including Consumers Union, Consumer Watchdog, Consumer Federation of California, California Alliance of Retired Americans and VoteVets.org.

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For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org – or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/stopprop17

Contra Costa Times Urges Readers to Vote No on Prop 17

Santa Monica, CA – The campaign to stop the insurance company-sponsored Prop 17 today received the endorsement of the Contra Costa Times <http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_14680005>, telling its readers to “Vote No On Deceptive Proposition 17.”

Proposition 17 would surcharge drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years.  Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for insurance when they sought to restart coverage.  Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing the surcharge in California.

In today’s editorial against Prop 17, the Contra Costa Times writes:

“Californians should have no trouble figuring out how to vote on Proposition 17, the auto insurance measure. All they have to do is ask themselves if Mercury Insurance Co., which spent $3.5 million to qualify and support the initiative, has consumers’ welfare or its own financial interests in mind. Prop. 17, which is almost entirely funded by Mercury Insurance, is designed to fool voters into believing it is simply a change in the law that would allow insurers to offer a “continuous coverage” discount on policies to new customers who switch auto insurance companies.”

And on Prop 17’s impact on California motorists:

“Huge surcharges of several hundred dollars or more would be allowed even for motorists with good driving records. The fact is many Californians have had lapses in their auto insurance when they served in the military, went to college, suffered illnesses, lost their jobs or lived in a large city with good public transportation.

The threat of paying surcharges appears, in part, to be designed to force some people to pay for auto insurance during periods when they do not need it.”

Contra Costa Times hits the nail on the head with the (multi) million-dollar question:

“Why else would Mercury spend millions of its own dollars on the measure?”

For more information, please visit: http://StopProp17.org – or find us on twitter at: http://twitter.com/stopmercury and facebook <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Prop-17/338876074483?ref=ts> .

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Judge Rejects Mercury Insurance’s Lies; Voters Will Be Told of Prop 17 Car Insurance Surcharges

Sacramento, CA – Judge Allen Sumner has upheld Attorney General Jerry Brown’s Official Title and Summary of Proposition 17, which warns the measure will allow car insurers to raise premiums.  The ruling means voters will learn in the ballot pamphlet that Prop 17 will allow insurance companies to raise rates on California drivers based on their history of buying auto insurance.

Attorneys for Mercury Insurance failed as it tried to convince the court to remove any reference to the insurance surcharges that Prop 17 will create.  Consumer advocates hailed the decision as a victory for voters, who will have the opportunity to cut through Mercury’s multi-million dollar campaign of lies and read a fair assessment of the insurance company’s initiative in the Voter Guide.

“When voters face the deceptive, multi-million dollar insurance company ad campaign for Prop 17, at least they’ll be able to turn to Attorney General Brown’s summary to learn the truth,” said consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield who co-authored one of the ballot arguments against Prop 17.  “Now that the Judge has made it clear that Prop 17 lets insurance companies raise car insurance premiums, will the insurance company backers of Prop 17 stop lying about it?”

With the ruling, voters will read the following in the Official Title and Summary of Prop 17:

“Will allow insurance companies to increase cost of insurance to drivers who do not have a history of continuous insurance coverage.”

The Judge rejected Mercury’s attempt to strike out much of Prop 17 opponents’ ballot arguments. He did require two cosmetic changes to the arguments, so the main argument against 17 now includes the statement:

It punishes our troops, among others.  This initiative raises rates on Californians who stop their insurance, including military serving stateside.  Penalizing these drivers by forcing them to pay more when they restart their insurance is wrong.

The rebuttal argument was amended to read: “you will get hit with surcharges of up to $1,000/year.”

Proposition 17, which has been funded with $3.5 million from Mercury Insurance, would surcharge drivers, including soldiers and seniors, who have had a lapse in car insurance coverage for virtually any reason during the past five years.  Under the measure, people who stopped driving and didn’t need insurance for a time would be required to pay up to a thousand dollars more for insurance when they sought to restart coverage.  Currently, insurance companies are prohibited from imposing the surcharge in California.

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