Big Insurance versus Legal Funding 2014, Round 3 (also know as "she turned me into a newt...")
If you are ready to see how a model bill turns into a law at the state level, this Wednesday morning at 10am EST you will be able to stream online the debate of the Indiana House Insurance Sub-committee when it considers Indiana State Rep Lehman's HB1205 that attacks lawsuit lending. You will not find better political theater, and as previewed below.
This bill as currently designed, because of the influences of big insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate (and the Republican legislators under their influence), would essentially ban consumer legal funding in Indiana by introducing a number of poison pills into HB1205 that I discussed in a prior diary. And the anti-regulation anti-price control Indiana Republicans will say that they want to preserve this valuable service for consumers through regulation and price controls so that it does not hurt big insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate.
The debate will be broadcast live here on this link on Wednesday 1/21/14 at 10am EST:
http://iga.in.gov/...
The hearing will take place in Room 156 B.
If you are wondering what these legislative debates are like, I can offer you a preview. To me, the following scene from the classic movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail captures the essence of past debates on the subject of legal funding in front of legislators, and is likely to repeat itself on Wednesday Just substitute Legal Funding for the poor young woman accused of being a witch.
The angry townspeople want to burn the alleged witch that they have dressed up to look witch-like by for instance tying a carrot to her face to give her a fake witch nose. One townsman, played by John Cleese, accuses her of having turned him into a newt. When everyone looks at him confused, he adds "I got better...."
Former Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker is likely to play John Cleese's role. He tours the country at the whim of the US Chamber of Commerce and the big insurance companies, such as State Farm and Allstate, that set the agenda for the US Chamber. Without evidence (because saying "I believe" is not evidence), he will likely accuse the Legal Funding industry of turning consumers into newts. Yet, as with all of his past performances, he will not produce any evidence of consumers that have turned into newts. Or perhaps they all got better, too?
At the end of the Monty Python scene, the voice of logic and reason helps guide the angry townspeople into coming up with a test of how to determine if the targeted woman is a witch. By the logical formula, if she weighs more than a duck she cannot be a witch. They put her on a scale to compare her to the weight of a duck. She clearly weighs more than a duck, and therefore clearly proves not to be a witch. And what do the townspeople do? They haul her off anyway to burn her because in the end they do not care about the logic. They always wanted to burn her, so they are going to burn her.
I predict that the Legal Funding industry will spend great energies on Wednesday to prove that they have not turned anyone into newts, will better employ the voice of reason and logic, and at the end of the hearing the sub-committee led by Republicans (who are supposed to be for the free market and against regulation) will agree with the logic and then go ahead and vote to burn the Legal Funding industry at the stake anyway.
Here is the scene:
http://www.youtube.com/...