The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) has launched public awareness campaigns in Los Angeles, California, and Cook County, Illinois, highlighting what it describes as the impact of legal system abuse on insurance costs and local economies.
The initiative comes as insurers across the US continue to contend with elevated loss costs in several lines, which industry groups have partly attributed to “social inflation” and a rise in large jury awards and settlements.
Triple-I argued that abuse of the legal system increases the frequency and severity of claims, with associated costs ultimately borne by consumers and businesses through higher premiums and, in some cases, reduced availability of coverage.
The launched campaign
Triple-I has deployed traditional billboards on high-traffic highways in Los Angeles and Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago. The messaging links litigation trends to higher auto, home and business insurance premiums.
In addition, digital out-of-home placements, including ads on bus shelters and urban panels, are running alongside the billboards. These displays call out the perceived role of aggressive legal advertising and "billboard attorneys" in driving up claim costs.
The campaign is also supported by an updated microsite, StopLegalSystemAbuse.org, which Triple-I described as an educational resource explaining how it believes legal system abuse contributes to higher insurance costs and broader economic impacts. Targeted social media advertising, including Facebook ads, directs consumers to the site and encourages them to contact state lawmakers.
Call for legislative action
Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan (pictured) framed the effort as part of a broader push to address litigation-related cost drivers in key states.
“As we continue to be inundated across the US by the likes of billboard attorneys preying on vulnerable Americans and increasing insurance costs for everyone, now is the time for further action from California and Illinois lawmakers,” he said. "We have seen positive results in states such as Florida that comprehensive legal reform works – leading to market stabilization, more competition and better pricing of insurance for consumers.”
Florida has enacted a series of legal changes in recent years targeting issues such as assignment of benefits, attorney fee multipliers, and certain bad faith practices. Industry advocates frequently cited those reforms as contributing to improved conditions in that state’s property and casualty markets, although the full long-term impact remains under discussion among insurers, policymakers, and consumer groups.
'Judicial hellholes' and social inflation backdrop
Both Cook County and Los Angeles appeared on the American Tort Reform Foundation’s 2025–2026 Judicial Hellholes list, which identified jurisdictions the group considers to have particularly challenging civil justice environments for defendants. That designation is often referenced by insurers and reinsurers as a shorthand for venues where they expect higher liability costs and greater volatility in claim outcomes.
In recent years, carriers and analysts have pointed to “nuclear verdicts” and broader social inflation as material drivers of loss severity in casualty and commercial auto, with implications for umbrella, excess liability, and certain property-casualty lines. Those trends have influenced pricing, capacity deployment, and reinsurance negotiations, particularly in large metropolitan areas and plaintiff-friendly venues.
For insurers and brokers, any future tort reform efforts in California and Illinois could affect both regional carriers and national or global insurers writing US casualty and property-casualty business, given the size of those markets and their influence on national pricing, capacity and reinsurance strategies.
