War Declared In Texas As Insurers Fight Storm Claims

Two of the state’s most-powerful lobbies, the insurance industry and trial lawyers, are gearing up for a fight over a push to ease penalties against companies that deny homeowners their hail-damage claims. “The litigation is just off the scale,” said Mark Hanna, a spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, an Austin trade group that represents firms including Allstate Corp. and Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. “We’ve had insurance companies say we can’t take this anymore.”