‘Reasonable’ Auto Rate Hike Suggested

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge suggested at a hearing Wednesday that Insurance Commissioner Roxani Gillespie agree to give the state’s auto insurance companies a “reasonable� interim rate increase next year during Insurance Department proceedings to determine what final rates they will be permitted to charge.

But Gillespie’s attorney, Karl Rubinstein, said outside the courtroom that Gillespie would have “a real problem� granting an interim increase. The hearing in Judge Miriam A. Vogel’s court was held on the request of the Allstate company to either be allowed to increase its rates or to abandon its participation in the money-losing assigned risk system. Vogel declined to order either.