An appeals court in California recently upheld a ruling rejecting a lawsuit that sought to stop the state from allowing insurers to charge unmarried people more due to their higher statistical likelihood of getting into a crash, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The lawsuit, which is expected to be appealed, was brought by 11 unwed drivers seeking to force Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to remove marriage as a factor in setting rates, which he opposed, the newspaper reported.
The 2-1 decision was reached July 16 in the 1st Appellate District in San Francisco on the grounds that state civil rights laws barring discrimination due to marital status must defer to Proposition 103, a 1988 ballot measure governing California's property and casualty insurance industry, according to the Times.
However, Proposition 103's author, Harvey Rosenfield, said such a use of marital status was unjust, the newspaper reported.
Quotes for single, divorced and widowed drivers in April 2025 were as much as $108 higher from four of five California carriers for six months of premiums, according to the Times.
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