Code of Massachusetts Regulations
211 CMR - DIVISION OF INSURANCE
Title 211 CMR 77.00 - Procedures For The Conduct Of Proceedings On Fixed-and-established Private Passenger Motor Vehicle Insurance Rates
Section 77.05 - Schedule of Proceedings, Conferences, and Content of Advisory Filings
Current through Register 1531, September 27, 2024
(1) Schedule. The Presiding Officer shall determine the dates for submissions of filings; rebuttal evidence and briefs, if any; the beginning and ending dates of cross- and redirect examination; and the dates for any pre-hearing and preliminaryconferences. Unless otherwise determined by the Presiding Officer, advisory filings shall be submitted in the following order: insurer, intervenors and statutory intervenors, and the State Rating Bureau.
The schedule may be altered by the Presiding Officer on his or her own, or upon request by a party upon a showing of good cause. The schedule may provide for separate filings, to be submitted at different times, for different issues or groups of issues specified by the Presiding Officer.
The schedule and procedures set forth in 211 CMR 77.00 may be modified by the Presiding Officer in proceedings on applications to deviate from the fixed-and-established rates.
(2) Separate Hearings. The Presiding Officer, in his or her discretion, may direct that certain issues be considered in one or more separate hearing sessions to be conducted according to a schedule set by the Presiding Officer. The Presiding Officer may direct that the sessions proceed concurrently.
(3) Conferences. The Presiding Officer may hold one or more pre-hearing conferences to develop the schedule for the conduct of the proceeding. The Presiding Officer may also direct the parties to confer with the Presiding Officer or each other to consider:
After a conference held pursuant to 211 CMR 77.05(3), the Presiding Officer may issue an order regarding the subsequent schedule of the proceeding, which shall control unless modified by the Presiding Officer.
(4) Advisory Filings.
(5) Statistical Data Base. An insurer in a hearing and investigation to fix and establish rates shall submit its statistical data base to the State Rating Bureau and to statutory intervenors as soon as reasonably available, but no later than 50 days after the issuance of the notice of hearing, or as otherwise ordered by the Commissioner.
(6) Relitigation of Facts or Issues; Proposals to Alter Methodologies. The Presiding Officer may rely on previous years' automobile insurance rate decisions as precedent and, in the absence of significant new evidence or other good cause, may preclude the parties from relitigating facts or issues, including methodological issues, decided in previous decisions. All filings shall state with specificity each aspect of a methodology used in the previous year's automobile insurance rate decision which the filing party recommends not be used in the current proceeding. Any such filing shall also state with specificity each recommended methodological alternative. The party's written direct testimony and exhibits shall contain all material, including all data, statistics, schedules and exhibits, which the party wishes to present for consideration at the hearing in support of a recommendation for a change in methodology and a recommended alternative methodology. Such portions of the written direct testimony and exhibits shall be clearly identified. A party who fails to make a filing in accordance with 211 CMR 77.05(6) shall be precluded from recommending or presenting evidence in support of a change in methodology.