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BOSTON -- The state attorney general's office promised yesterday to fight a request for a 6.8 percent increase in auto insurance rates.
The industry said last week it needed a rate increase of 9.6 percent, but it then knocked off 2.8 percent from that because it is being required to return millions that it mistakenly overcharged from 1991 through 1996.
The attorney general's office said it wanted to take a close look at the industry's costs.
"We'll make them prove to us that their rates and their cost went up 9.6 percent from last year to this year," said Assistant Attorney General Joanna Connolly.
The attorney general's role is to represent consumers in rate-making cases before the state Insurance Division. The commissioner of insurance must rule on the rates by Dec. 15.
Connolly said there was evidence "the auto insurance industry is doing very nicely indeed, thank you. We're really going to fight this."
Announcing its rate proposal late last week, the Automobile Insurers Bureau noted that rates have gone down three years in a row and said the 6.8 percent was "a modest request."
Dan Johnston, president of the industry group, had no comment yesterday.
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