The Arizona Chamber has decided to take a run at capping rates on legal funding in Arizona to push its agenda of banning legal funding as a cornerstone of its tort reform movement. Yet interestingly enough, in its 2015 agenda, one of the Arizona Chamber's items is to "oppose limits on interest rates", as state here in its glossy online brochure under the heading "Promote Free Market Delivery of Financial Services" on page 33.
So what gives? Its introduction of SB1403 (Sponsored by State Senator Kimberly Yee) promotes a rate cap the insurance industry members driving the Chambers actions has been attempting to banish.
Stymied in its attempt to move its tort reform agenda, the Arizona Chamber has focused on curtailing consumer access to legal funding. This option helps injured consumers during what could be a long wait for insurance companies liable for the person that disrupted their lives.
The Insurance Lobby controlling the Arizona Chamber has a system it already likes that involves keeping the wait long. History has demonstrated that consumers under financial pressure take low settlement offers. So why not take two completely contrary stances. Fight any kind of rate control that interferes with the free market when it comes to insurance products and bank overdrafts that have no regulatory limits on fees, but push them on a small industry that promotes choice for the consumer. Sounds a bit like the crony capitalism not popular with the far right, but the politics of money might be the trump card in the Arizona General Assembly this session.