The California Assembly approved AB 1200 42-19 on Sept. 9 and the insurer-backed bill now goes to the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for his review. The Collision Repair Association of California will ask him to veto the measure because it will hurt independent collision repair shops, which already are suffering during the economic downturn, while depriving claimants the benefits of a repair analyses based on the right thing to do, not the cheapest way to go.

“AB 1200 is a misleading proposal that allows an insurer to keep the details of direct repair programs secret while it badgers claimants into selecting a repair shop favored by the insurer,” says CRA president Lee Amaradio. “We will ask the governor to send AB 1200 back to the Legislature where it needs to be reworked into a measure that is fair to claimants, shops and insurers.”

The CRA has posted the votes on AB 1200 on its Web site, www.cra-ca.com, so members can see how their representative in the State Legislature responded to the insurance industry-backed bill.

CRA said that the close votes on the bill indicate that many lawmakers are hesitant about it. For example, the Legislature approved the anti-steering law, Senator Jackie Speier's SB 551, by a vote of 114-1 in 2003. AB 1200, which undoes SB 551, received 36 no votes and 63 yes votes. AB 1200 won approval by the bare minimum in the State Senate and received 42 out of 80 votes in the Assembly.

“The vote totals for AB 1200 raise the notion that a significant number of lawmakers don't think the bill is ready to become law,” says Richard Steffen, CRA’s lobbyist.

CRA is encouraging its members to write Gov Schwarzenegger to ask him to veto the bill. Letters should be mailed during the week of Sept. 14 and should be addressed to:

The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor, State of California
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Attn: Legislative Unit, AB 1200

CRA wants its members to tell the governor how AB 1200 will hurt their business and their customers. If enacted, AB 1200 will help insurers send more claimants to DRP shops, CRA said. Under AB 1200 California will be riddled with company stores, competition will decrease and the benefits of an open marketplace will be curtailed.

When the governor reviews a bill, he is told how many people wrote him about the measure and in what part of the state the letter writers reside, CRA said.