Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has lined up three high-poweredattorneys to bring a class-action suit against property insurers,who he says are violating a state law designed to help them reducerates.

Dexter Douglass, one of the attorneys the governor revealed lastweek had been contacted, said the case would be handled in the sameway as the massive government lawsuit against the tobacco industry,which led to a $130 billion settlement.

In reaction, an insurance industry representative said any legalaction taken by the state would prove futile, because insurers havedone nothing wrong.

Mr. Douglass, onetime general counsel to former Fla. Gov. LawtonChiles, said he and the other attorneys would take on the cost ofthe case on a contingent-fee basis. Asked if the outlay would haveto be substantial, he said, "I imagine it would be."

In addition to Mr. Douglass, Gov. Crist contacted Bob Hackleman,a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., trial lawyer, and Roberto Martinez, theformer U.S. attorney from Miami.

Mr. Douglass said the governor asked him "to look into theprobability of causes of action." At this point, he said, becausethe attorneys had not gotten together and had time to look at theissue, there is no time frame for formally bringing a suit.

Earlier this year, the legislature passed a measure providingproperty insurers with reduced-cost reinsurance through the FloridaHurricane Catastrophe Fund, a move expected to give them savingsthey could pass on to policyholders.

Insurers, however, said most of the anticipated savings did notmaterialize because the carriers were already locked into dealswith private reinsurers for a second, higher limit of coverage toprotect their ratings and solvency.

While some insurers have cut rates, the reductions have beennowhere near the projected 24 percent decreases, and stateofficials have challenged the way insurers arrived at their prices.(For more on this showdown between carriers and the industry inFlorida, see page 18.)

After Allstate Floridian Indemnity and Allstate FloridaInsurance Company asked for hikes of 28.3 percent and 41.9 percent,respectively, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation demandedthat company officials appear for a hearing.

But first they have asked the insurer to respond to a subpoenademanding a truckload of information about the company's policies,its reinsurance program, and its relationships with ratingagencies, risk modelers and trade groups.

In response to news of Gov. Crist's action, Sam Miller,executive vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, saidinsurers "will defend ourselves in court, and we will be provenright. This industry has been proven right in similar lawsuits inLouisiana and Mississippi. We haven't done anything wrong, and wewill be able to prove that."

Insurers, he said, had paid $37 billion on 1.5 million claimsarising from hurricanes hitting the state in 2004 and 2005, andbecause they have had to raise rates, "we've been accused of everyconceivable crime."

Other hurricane-prone states, he said, have worked inpartnership with the industry to resolve insurance capacity andrate problems, but in Florida, "it's a war down here."