ConsumerWatchdog.org

Just about every state requires drivers to buy auto insurance but very few states offer any serious consumer protection for insurance customers. California's Proposition 103 (the 1988 initiative authored by Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield) provides motorists the most protection from insurance price gouging in the nation. Since 1988, California has been the only state to see auto insurance premiums consistently decline, while insurers hiked rates by an average of 35% around the nation.

At Consumer Watchdog we enforce Prop 103's protections and fight for more, in California and around the country. Over the years, Consumer Watchdog:

• has helped save drivers over $23 billion on their auto insurance;
• crafted the nation's first low-cost auto insurance policy for low-income drivers; li> led the 18 year fight to force California insurance companies to base premiums on a driver's record, not their ZIP Code; and
• we've successfully sued insurance companies that cheat an overcharge customers.

The Failure of No-Fault Auto Insurance

As much as we have fought for insurance consumer rights and fair premiums, we have also fought efforts by insurance companies to strip consumers of their rights.

For years, insurers have tried to replace the personal responsibility insurance systems most common in the U.S. (the driver who causes the accident is responsible for the damages) with highly inefficient and unfair "No-Fault" auto insurance schemes. Read a brief histoy of No-Fault. We have fought them off at the ballot box and have studied No-Fault systems and demonstrated that they are more costly and less protective.

Information about our most recent report - The Cost of No Fault Auto Insurance - is available from our news release announcing the study, which can be downloaded here. A critique of studies conducted by the Rand Corporation is available here.