PRESS RELEASE
(For Immediate Release)

Contact Person:
Tracy L. Hickman
415-609-3511
Email: HickmanCommunications@comcast.net

April 5, 2010

S. F. Consumer Insurance Lawyer, Lee Harris, to Provide Key CA Assembly Testimony

Lee S. Harris is a nationally recognized lawyer with over 30 years in practice helping individuals and small business with ERISA and bad faith insurance issues. (See www.sfbadfaithlawyer.com). Mr. Harris is a named partner in the SF law firm GGMH (Goldstein, Gellman, Melbostad & Harris, LLP).

On April 7, 2010, he will be testifying in front of the California Assembly’s Insurance Committee on Assembly Bill 1868.

The core of his testimony will include the following:

• Most employer provided disability insurance policies written by insurance companies are governed by Federal ERISA law and have “discretionary language” giving the insurance company broad discretion to interpret the policy and facts to suit their needs.
• When this language exists in a policy are bound to follow the insurance companies decision EVEN IF IT IS WRONG unless there is a very high proof showing of an “abuse of discretion”. The deck is stacked in favor of the “Plan” and the insurance company.
• Insurance companies have “bulked up” their claims “review” departments to “gather” facts from in house consultants and doctors relying on this loophole to create basis for denying claims to the detriment of claimants.
• Disabled workers are often in the most vulnerable position, both physically and financially, without adequate resources to adequately respond on to these types of procedural games.
• States are allowed under ERISA law to continue to regulate insurance companies and can enact laws to close insurance coverage and interpretation loopholes. AB 1868 would close the “discretionary clause” loophole and allow judges to “judge” facts as they normally do--as primary deciders of fact.

As one of the preeminent insurance, bad faith & ERISA attorneys in the state, Lee currently serves as an officer & director of Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), where he has received three Presidential Awards of Merit. He has served as chair of the American Association for Justice, Insurance and Bad Faith Litigation groups. He has been honored by being nominated and elected as a fellow of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Harris received his undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard and his law degree from the University of San Francisco in 1977. He has authored articles and lectured on insurance coverage, jury selection, injury and disability cases and other topics. He has instructed at the Stanford Law School Trial Advocacy Skills Program, Hastings College of Advocacy and the University of San Francisco School of Law Intensive Advocacy Program. Mr. Harris participates in the judge pro tem program of the San Francisco Superior Court and has presided over court and jury trials. He is also a past president of the USF Law Alumni Association.

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