"Hey! Why are you raising my insurance premiums?"

Ask someone why insurance companies are forced to raise their rates and you'll probably hear: "It's the fault of all these attorneys," or some variation of the sort. 

There has always been, and probably always will be, a divide in public opinion as to whether or not insurance companies and their ever-rising premiums are merely a product of aggressive plaintiff’s attorneys. Some groups (insurance companies included) argue that personal injury lawyers are sucking the insurance companies dry, leaving them with no choice but to raise premiums on their insured.  It's a great job of marketing on the part of the insurance company--it's also a very deceptive and lazy answer.

If numbers like the following were given their due attention, then the public might have a different, more feasible, justification for why their premiums are so high.

• In 2007 State Farm’s chairman and CEO received an 82% raise after the company posted record profit from the previous year–this amounts to a $5.26 million raise.
• In 2006, the same CEO earned a total of $11.66 million.
• Of that total, $9.89 million was results-based bonus. (That "results-based bonus" is largely attributed to the CEO’s ability to limit the company’s payout in claims to their insured who have suffered injury and to victims of injury caused by their insured.)
• The same CEO made $6.4 million in 2005 and $5.5 million in 2004. 
• Moreover, in 2006, State Farm generated a record $5.32 billion profit.
  

Unfortunately, the truth is that the slanted stereotype of the greedy attorney will probably always have a home in our culture, but if we look at the numbers, it makes you stop and think, "Why, exactly, is the insurance company raising my rates?"