The Center for Justice & Democracy thanks The Palm Beach Post for Randy Schultz's column, "On insurance, will state get fooled again?" (Oct. 8), which discussed our idea for solving Florida 's homeowners insurance crisis - removing the private insurance industry from hurricane wind coverage.
To make sure readers get a fair picture of who we are, the Center for
Justice & Democracy was formed in 1998 with the help of Ralph Nader and two grants from the Stern Family Fund, a foundation not connected to trial lawyers. Contrary to the possible implication in the column, CJ&D does not accept donations from trial lawyer associations. Many subscribe to our materials, but so do representatives from the insurance industry, physicians and others who seek our materials.
The large majority of our board of advisers are academic scholars. Another
adviser is J. Robert Hunter, who wrote the homeowners insurance report with me. He is the former federal insurance administrator under Presidents Ford and Carter, and a former Texas insurance commissioner. He now is director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America. He does not work for CJ&D.
Sometimes, it may be hard for people to understand why anyone other than plaintiffs' lawyers would care about insurance industry or civil justice
issues. But corporate irresponsibility is something about which we all
should be concerned and which we all should work to fix, as many in the
legal community have noted for years.
JOANNE DOROSHOW
Executive Director, Center for Justice & Democracy
Co-founder, Americans for Insurance Reform
New York
The Center for Justice & Democracy is the only national consumer organization in the country exclusively dedicated to protecting our civil justice system. If you'd like more information, please contact us.
