Pam Pressley

Consumer Watchdog’s Senior Staff Attorney, Pamela Pressley has led Consumer Watchdog’s efforts to enforce Proposition 103’s mandates in court to protect California insurance policyholders against discriminatory practices and premium overcharges. Pam has authored appellate briefs and presented oral argument in numerous cases successfully upholding the insurance initiative and other California consumer protection laws, resulting in several precedential published opinions, including The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights v. Garamendi (2005) 132 Cal.App.4th 1354; Association of California Insurance Companies v. Poizner (2009) 180 Cal.App.4th 1029, Mercury Casualty Company v. Jones (2017) 8 Cal.App.5th 561, and Mercury Ins. Co. v Jones (2019) ___Cal.App.5th ___.

Pam has also served as lead counsel in challenges before the Department of Insurance to auto, homeowners, business and med mal insurance rate hike proposals, resulting in savings to California policyholders of over $3.4 billion.

In May 2010, Pam was named as one of the top women litigators in California by the Daily Journal. At the time, she had served “as litigation director of this small but dogged consumer group for more than a decade” and “gone head-to-head with state regulators for not cracking down on [] autism denials.” (Daily Journal Supplement, May 12, 2010, p. 34.) Her efforts, working together with Consumer Watchdog Litigation Director Jerry Flanagan and co-counsel Strumwasser & Woocher LLP, led to a Los Angeles Superior Court decision declaring that the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) illegally adopted rules that delayed and denied decisions regarding coverage for autism treatments and improperly withheld public documents that revealed how they handled consumer complaints, and a Court of Appeal decision ordering the DMHC to stop upholding such illegal denials of coverage for autism treatments.

Pam received her B.A. in Sociology from UCLA and her J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law. She was admitted to the California State Bar in 1995. Before joining Consumer Watchdog and serving as the organization’s Litigation Director for 15 years, Pam worked as Consumer Attorney for the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) and as a staff attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest (CLIPI).

Pam Pressley

Commissioner Lara Approves Over $1 Billion in Unjustified Auto Insurance Rate Hikes 

Insurance Commissioner Lara’s approval last week of a $263.7 million rate hike by California’s largest insurer, State Farm, marks the latest in a flurry of approvals of unjustified 2023 auto insurance rate hikes by the top 6 auto insurers, collectively totaling over $1 billion.

Insurance Department Must Protect Public’s Right to Scrutinize Insurance Rate Increases Consumer Watchdog Says in Letter to Commissioner Lara After Abrupt Approval of GEICO...

Los Angeles, CA – The California Department of Insurance has approved a $268 million increase in auto insurance premiums for GEICO customers without following the...

Consumer Watchdog Calls on Insurance Commissioner Lara to Reject Allstate’s Job-Based Insurance Rate Discrimination, Adopt Regulations to Stop the Practice Industrywide

Los Angeles, CA – Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara should reject Allstate’s proposed $165 million auto insurance rate hike and its two-tiered job- and education-based...

Consumer Groups Back Wildfire Mitigation Insurance Discounts, Call for Protection From Non-Renewals

Insurance Commissioner Lara Must Close Loophole in Regulation Allowing Insurers to Ignore WIldfire Mitigation for Denial or Non-Renewal Decisions Los Angeles, CA – A regulation proposed...

Consumer Watchdog Calls on Insurance Commissioner Lara To Issue Refund Rules In Response to CA Supreme Court

Los Angeles, CA -- The California Supreme Court has refused to review a lower court ruling that stripped the Insurance Commissioner of critical powers...

Proposed Regulation to Require Discounts for Wildfire Mitigation Measures Must Also Regulate Scores Secretly Used to Deny Home Insurance, Consumer Groups Urge Insurance Commissioner

Los Angeles, CA – Consumer groups said a regulation proposed by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to require discounts for homeowners who take home-hardening steps...

Consumer Watchdog Urges Insurance Commissioner to Freeze Auto Insurance Rates for Low Income Drivers

Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog has asked the Insurance Commissioner to block proposed hikes in the price of auto insurance sold to low income...

Data Shows Insurance Companies Use Occupation and Education to Segregate and Overcharge Communities of Color And Blue-Collar California Drivers

Los Angeles, CA -- An analysis of new data obtained from insurance companies by the California Department of Insurance (“CDI”) confirms complaints by Consumer Watchdog...

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Commissioner Lara Approves Over $1 Billion in Unjustified Auto Insurance Rate Hikes 

Insurance Commissioner Lara’s approval last week of a $263.7 million rate hike by California’s largest insurer, State Farm, marks the latest in a flurry of approvals of unjustified 2023 auto insurance rate hikes by the top 6 auto insurers, collectively totaling over $1 billion.

Consumer Watchdog Urges California Supreme Court to Grant Review in Land Use Approval Corruption Case

Think you’ve heard everything? Under a recent California Court...

CA Dept. of Insurance Failed to Search For Records Linked To Government Corruption Scandal

The non-profit Consumer Watchdog has filed an appeal in its California Public Records Act (“PRA”) lawsuit against Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the California Department of Insurance.

Doctors Save $2.8 Million After Challenge to Malpractice Insurance Rate Hike

Los Angeles, CA – In response to Consumer Watchdog’s...

City of LA Must Stop Approving Digital Ad Contracts That Violate Privacy Laws

Today Consumer Watchdog called on the city’s new leadership to address a bus shelter contract approved by the City Council that tracks people’s location via digital ads on our public sidewalks.
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