Jul 20
Hartford Fire Insurance Agrees to Settlement
At the end of February, Oregon’s Federal District Court Judge Anna Brown approved a nationwide class settlement lawsuit between Hartford Fire Insurance Company and more than 700,000 of the company’s policyholders. The group said that Hartford Fire and its subsidiaries did not abide by the Fair Credit Reporting Act and did not provide notice to them when it charged them more for insurance based on information in their credit reports.
The multimillion dollar settlement is an agreement in which every qualified class action member who submits a claim form on time will receive a payment of at least $150. If members had been able to prove at a trial that the company’s violations were willful, they might have been entitled to recover between $100 and $1,000 each in damages.
Initially, the Oregon District Court ruled that Hartford Fire had complied with the act, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the case, sending it back for a determination if Hartford Fire acted willfully when it made the increased based on policyholders’ credit histories.
Consumer advocates hailed the settlement, noting that consumers should be made aware that their credit report can adversely affect their insurance premiums.
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