From a Public Relations Newswire report:

“One year after Hurricane Katrina swept across the Gulf Coast, hurricane victims, joined by the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers (AFTL) and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA), are today launching a national petition drive calling on insurance companies to put policyholders over profits by paying fair and just claims to area residents who find themselves near ruin.

AFTL and ATLA also released a report today, “Pattern of Greed: How Insurance Companies Put Profits Over Policyholders,” which shows the insurance industry has made a practice of collecting billions of dollars from policyholders over the years and then stiffing them in their time of greatest need after various natural disasters. Meanwhile, the insurance industry is making record profits.

There’s a good deal more rhetoric available in the news release – all of it purple with indignation about ‘insurance CEOs’ bulging bank accounts’ and so forth. There are also a couple of quotes from long-suffering and elderly homeowners in Florida. Nowhere in the release, however, is there any indication as how these petitions will be collected; to whom they will be delivered; or what impact they are designed to produce. Legislation? A penitent insurance industry? Bunnies dancing in the streets?

How about a flurry of additional lawsuits following the recent court decision denying standard coverage for Katrina damage? How many trial lawyers devote themselves to social reform? For that matter, how many trial lawyer organizations issue so-called ‘Reports’ pimp-slapping an entire industry – without a legal agenda? Answer: none.