State Farm Sues State Over Rate Publicity

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ State Farm Insurance has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Insurance after the state agency took the unprecedented move of publicizing on its Web site recent rate hikes by the company.

Texas’ largest insurer filed suit Tuesday, seeking to protect from disclosure certain information that State Farm said could benefit its rivals in the insurance industry.

Department spokesman Jerry Hagins says the agency’s position is that all documents associated with a rate filing are public information.

Posted were two State Farm rate proposals filed over the last eight months that increase homeowner premiums an average of 13 percent.

Hagins tells The Dallas Morning News that the decision to post was partly the result of increases filed so close together.

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