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NAMIC 2006 Survey of New State Insurance Laws Summary and Analysis

This edition of the NAMIC Annual Survey of New State Insurance Laws covers 539 property/casualty laws enacted by legislators in 44 states plus the District of Columbia during 2006. This compares with 625 property/casualty bills enacted in 2005.

The following states are included in this year's survey along with the number of new property/casualty laws for each noted in parenthesis.

Alabama (13), Alaska (6), Arizona (7), California (38), Colorado (12), Connecticut (9), Delaware (1), District of Columbia (6), Florida (12) Georgia (12), Hawaii (16), Idaho (15), Illinois (4), Indiana (10), Iowa (6), Kansas (16) Kentucky (4), Louisiana (24), Maine (8), Massachusetts (5), Maryland (18), Michigan (33), Minnesota (6), Mississippi (11), Missouri (4), Nebraska (5), New Hampshire (14), New Jersey (3), New Mexico (2), New York (21), North Carolina (8), Ohio (5), Oklahoma (15), Pennsylvania (7), Rhode Island (25), South Carolina (11), South Dakota (16) Tennessee (21), Utah (22), Vermont (7), Virginia (25), Washington (8), West Virginia (13), Wisconsin (9) and Wyoming (7).

As usual, motor vehicle insurance bills led in 2006 with 169 bills. This compares to 190 auto-related bills enacted in 2005. Traffic offenses continued to be the largest sub-category of auto-related bills enacted with 42 bills signed in 2006. States continue to crack down on their driving while impaired laws by increasing penalties for repeat offenders. Ten states also enacted legislation related to teen drivers while ten states also enacted a series of traffic safety-related bills.

Workers' compensation was the second largest category of bills in 2006 with a total of 82 bills enacted. The largest number of those bills - 21 - related to benefits, claims or authorized treatments.

Identity theft legislation came in as the third most common type of legislation enacted in 2006 with 22 states and the District of Columbia enacting a total of 36 bills.

A total of 17 bills from 10 states fell into the catastrophe-related legislation category. This compares to only three states in 2005. Those states included: California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Five bills came from Louisiana, where lawmakers continued to deal with policy issues in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Florida and Hawaii both passed resolutions calling for creation of a national catastrophe fund.

States

Motor Vehicle Insurance

Producer Licensure

Property Insurance Bills

Tort Reform

Workers' Compensation

Additional Emerging New Law Trends