TRENTON, N.J., August 20 – The good news is that car insurance rates went down a bit for nearly one and a quarter million New Jersey motorists so far this year.

The bad news is that it went up for about 625,000 motorists.

And an encouraging sign that the market is competitive is that only 106,672 vehicles are insured in the assigned risk plan as of June this year. That is a drop of 19,000 vehicles, and the assigned risk plan now insures only two percent of the car insurance market.

In the chaotic 1980s, the assigned risk plan was insuring up to 10 to 12 percent of the vehicles because of the then tight voluntary market.

These are the principal findings of a six month review of car insurance rate actions by the Department of Insurance undertaken by the new administration of Governor Jon Corzine and his insurance commissioner, Stephen Goldman.

Rates Go Up

The department approved rate increases for four companies. The most notable were a three percent increase for Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. in June, affecting 377,247 exposures, and a 4.7 percent hike for First Trenton Indemnity Co. (Travelers), affecting 233,246 exposures.

In both cases company officials said the increases were caused by rising medical costs in the Personal Injury Protection policies.

Glen Greenberg, senior public relations consultant for the Liberty Mutual Group in Boston, said the average change in annual premium for Liberty car insurance customers in New Jersey would be about $60.

He added that, since 2004, Liberty Mutual has returned nearly $29 million through policyholder dividends and rate reductions, with the most recent rate decrease occurring in December of 2004.

Jennifer Wisoocki, spokesperson for First Trenton, said the 4.47 increase is in response to increased PIP costs due to lack of an adequate medical fee schedule.

The department, incidentally, is proposing major amendments to the medical fee schedule, and is seeking comments until November 4.

And Rates Come Down

The department also approved rate reductions of up to 14.6 percent for 14 companies, including car insurance giants State Farm Indemnity Co., and GEICO. In all, the reductions will affect about 25 percent of the five million insured motorists.

The decreases were part of the overall picture where companies have, over the past 18 months, lowered rates to remain competitive. Latest figures show that companies collectively have dropped their rates by $412 million since the new car insurance law of three years ago went into effect to ease rules and regulations for the car insurance companies.

According to the department record, State Farm Indemnity Companys 10 percent reduction for 508,790 exposures was approved and carried an asterisk. That marking reported State Farm Guaranty Insurance Company filed to adopt the revised rates of Stale Farm Indemnity Company effective April 4 in order to keep the base rate differential between the two companies at the same level. State Farm Guaranty began writing personal auto at the beginning of the year.

New Jersey Skylands Insurance Co. was granted approval to lower its rates for 28,059 exposures by 14.8 percent, the biggest decrease granted by the department so far this year. John Tiene, vice president of New Jersey Skylands, said, New Jerseys move to a more competitive market allowed us to implement a new sophisticated and highly segmented rate plan in August 2005. Our rate adjustment in early 2006 was a refinement of that plan and one that we are very satisfied with.

Some of the other filings for reductions in rates were:

Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co., a two percent reduction in June affecting 14,714 exposures;

AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance Co. of New Jersey, a 0.4 percent reduction in July affecting 45,580 exposures;

Farm Family Insurance Co., a 3.3 percent reduction in June affecting 28,378 exposures;

GEICO Group, a 0.2 percent reduction in April affecting 475,387 exposures " GEICO Employees Insurance Co., a 0.4 percent reduction in April affecting 301,535 exposures; GEICO Indemnity Co. a 0.2 percent reduction in April affecting 137,226 exposures; GEICO Casualty Co., a 0.7 percent reduction in April affecting 36,626 exposures;

Proformance Insurance Co., a 0.1 percent reduction in February affecting 114,498 exposures;

Firemans Fund Indemnity Corporation (Parkway), a 3.1 percent reduction in March affecting 11,267 exposures;

Progressive Direct Group, a 4.69 percent reduction in July affecting 6,061 exposures;

Progressive Garden State Insurance Co., a 4.69 percent reduction in July affecting 3,704 exposures;

Freedom Insurance Co., a 4.68 percent reduction in July affecting 3,707 exposures.

Some of the filings for increases, according to the department records, are:

New Jersey Citizens United Reciprocal Exchange (NJCURE) a .85 percent rate increase in July affecting 45,580 exposures;

Centennial Insurance Co., a 4.8 percent increase in March affecting 2,048 exposures.