Automobile insurers this week denied a request by Attorney General Martha Coakley for detailed information they will use to set their premiums and to make policy changes under the state's new, competitive insurance system.
Under the current system of state-set rates, the attorney general intervened each year to advocate on behalf of drivers who buy car insurance, routinely calling for rates that were far lower than ones proposed by insurers.
But with the rate-setting process abolished under new regulations written by Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes, the attorney general has just 20 days to review the companies' proposed rates and policies and to ask for a public hearing.
Burnes will decide whether to hold hearings on the proposed policies.
Under competition, which is set to go into effect April 1, the attorney general's office "is going to have to be a consumer advocate on 19 smaller filings rather than one large filing," said Stephen D'Amato, a consultant for the Center for Insurance Research in Cambridge.
The requests "are all coming at once, in a shorter time frame," he said, adding, "It's a lot of work."
To expedite its review, the attorney general in a Nov. 1 letter requested detailed industry information from the Automobile Insurers Bureau, which represents the industry, to start to "review the automobile insurance rate filings under the new competitive system," Assistant Attorney General Peter Leight said.
He asked for information and data ranging from insurance company revenue and expenses in 2006 to quarterly accident comparisons and group-discount information.
Company requests for policy approvals and rate changes must be submitted to Burnes by Nov. 19 - Leight's letter asked to receive the supporting information Nov. 14.
"Obtaining this information will put us in a better position to decide whether to trigger a rate trial," the attorney general's office said in an e-mail yesterday.
The industry on Thursday declined to release "privileged" industry documents.
The bureau's position is that it is Burnes's job - not the attorney general's - to take drivers' interests into account in approving or denying insurers' proposals for premiums and policy changes.
"That's the job of the regulator, to ensure that the rates that are in place are not excessive, discriminatory, or inadequate," said Dan Johnston, the bureau's president. "That's what the law says."
Kimberly Blanton can be reached at blanton@globe.com.
