2025 analysis by the Consumer Federation of America<\/a>, for instance, showed GEICO charged a single driver $331.40 for six months of coverage compared to $250.40 for a married driver with the same profile.<\/p>\nAdamma Ison along with other unmarried insured individuals sued the state\u2019s insurance commissioner over that regulation in 2022. She alleged that single people were charged approximately $56 to $100 more for insurance.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit claimed that regulation violated the state\u2019s civil rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on marital status, and a related insurance nondiscrimination law. Lawmakers updated both laws after 2004 to include martial status.<\/p>\n
But the insurance commissioner defended the regulation in court and noted that the state\u2019s civil rights act said it \u201cshall not be construed to confer any right or privilege on a person that is conditioned or limited by law.\u201d That exempts the regulation, the commissioner argued.<\/p>\n
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The appellate court agreed, noting that voters passed a law much earlier in 1988 to create the elected office of insurance commissioner and vest that person authority over setting insurance rates before martial status was added in. It also noted a provision in law that said the act \u201cdefers\u201d to conflicting statutes.<\/p>\n
Notes by a lawmaker who amended one of the laws also show his intent wasn\u2019t to supersede the authority of the commissioner to establish optional factors for setting insurance rates, the court ruled.<\/p>\n
Divorcees and other single vehicle owners may be charged higher rates by insurers. auremar \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Some consumer advocates blasted the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cA widow does not become a more dangerous driver when her spouse dies. A divorced parent does not suddenly become a greater insurance risk when a marriage ends,\u201d Consumer Watchdog litigation director William Pletcher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Ricardo Lara endorsing discrimination by insurance companies against widows, divorcees, single parents and every other Californian who, for whatever personal reason or circumstance, is not married,\u201d he said, referring to the current insurance commissioner.<\/p>\n
Justice Alison Tucher on the court dissented against the ruling as well, arguing the law should not give the insurance commissioner the right to \u201cpick and choose\u201d what parts of civil rights law to comply with.<\/p>\n
The state insurance department in a statement to the Post said the ruling changes nothing for Californians. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe ruling leaves in place an optional rating factor that has existed since 1996 and left unchanged for 30 years by\u201d past commissioners, a spokesperson said. \u201cNo one will be seeing higher or lower premiums for their automobile policies based on this ruling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Californians who are divorced, widowed or single for any reason may be charged higher car insurance prices after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,155849,6996,1312,161733,4182,15630,28903],"class_list":["post-403226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-car-insurance","tag-cars","tag-courts","tag-divorces","tag-metro","tag-personal-finance","tag-singles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}