Finding the charges lack any factual support, a federal judge has dismissed a big lawsuit that was filed against large commercial insurance brokers and insurers in 2004 when bid rigging and account steering probes were in full sway.

Chief Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. of the U.S. District Court for New Jersey said the plaintiffs had no proof that there was any sort of conspiracy among insurers and brokers to secretly allocate accounts, refrain from competing, or pay incentive bonuses on certain commercial accounts.

The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants had engaged in conspiracies to coordinate illegal distribution of commercial insurance accounts among insurers. Judge Brown found that the plaintiffs presented no evidence at all to support the charges of a global conspiracy among brokers to keep secret their contingent commissions and not tell clients about them.

The case in New Jersey, a consolidation of private lawsuits from around the nation, developed in the wake of investigations by state attorneys general including New York’s Eliot Spitzer over alleged bid rigging, account steering and improper contingent commission payments. Defendants in the suit were some of the largest insurance companies and brokerages including American International Group, The Hartford, Fireman’s, Liberty Mutual, American Re, Travelers, Chubb, Marsh, Willis, Aon and Hilb Rogal & Hobb.

September 11, 2007