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SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Norma P. García, longtime special projects attorney with Consumers Union's West Coast Regional Office, will now lead the group's legislative advocacy efforts on insurance issues. García's work will focus on advancing low-cost auto insurance policy options through the state legislature to reduce the number of uninsured motorists in California and to protect low- and moderate-income California drivers. García will also address consumer property and casualty insurance issues, including automobile, homeowners, and earthquake insurance. She will advocate on behalf of the interests of consumers in the California legislature and before the California Department of Insurance.
"Fair and affordable insurance for California's consumers has always been a priority for Consumers Union," said Betsy Imholz, director of the West Coast Regional Office of Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. "Norma is a dedicated and experienced consumer advocate for the interests of California consumers."
"Our top priority this year is to ensure the passage of legislation that will create an affordable insurance policy for California's low-income, uninsured good drivers, " said Norma García. "The lack of affordable automobile insurance for low and moderate-income consumers affects all of us. Many consumers need cars to keep a job and to provide for their families. The law requires that all drivers have auto insurance, yet many low-income drivers have none simply because they cannot afford today's high rates. Lowering the number of uninsured drivers, currently estimated at 3.4 million, will benefit all Californians."
Since joining Consumers Union's staff in 1992, García concentrated on legislative and regulatory advocacy on behalf of low-income consumers especially in the areas of credit and finance. She is the author of Dirty Deeds, Abuses and Fraudulent Practices in California's Home Equity Market, and The Hard Sell, Combating Home Equity Lending Fraud in California, chronicling home equity lending fraud and abuse in California. She drafted and obtained passage of SB 2045 to protect homeowners from predatory lending practices. García will continue to devote a portion of her time to the issue of home equity fraud, participating in and supervising the office's Homeowners Education Project.
Prior to her work at Consumers Union, García was an attorney in private practice and a licensed private investigator providing legal investigations for attorneys. Specializing in bilingual death penalty defense investigation, she was directly responsible for obtaining favorable verdicts in several capital cases. García served as the 1993 President for the La Raza Lawyers Association of California, an organization representing approximately 3,500 Latino lawyers in the state of California. During law school, she served as a law clerk at M.A.L.D.E.F. and at several Bay Area public defender offices. She received her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law and her BA from the University of California at Irvine.
