California insurers can charge single adults, widows higher rates after controversial court ruling

Californians who are divorced, widowed or single for any reason may be charged higher car insurance prices after a shocking court ruling.A California Court of Appeal upheld a state regulation Thursday that’s been in place since 1996 that permits auto insurers to use marital status as a factor in determining premiums for its “substantial relationship to loss.”Some insurers, such as Farmers Insurance, have relied on historical actuarial data that shows that married drivers tend to file fewer and less severe claims than unmarried ones.A 2025 analysis by the Consumer Federation of America, for instance, showed GEICO charged a single driver $331.40 for six months of coverage compared to $250.40 for a married driver with the same profile.Adamma Ison along with other unmarried insured individuals sued the state’s insurance commissioner over that regulation in 2022.

She alleged that single people were charged approximately $56 to $100 more for insurance.The lawsuit claimed that regulation violated the state’s civil rights act, which prohibits discrimination based on marital status, and a related insurance nondiscrimination law.Lawmakers updated both laws after 2004 to include martial status.But the insurance commissioner defended the regulation in court and noted that the state’s civil rights act said it “shall not be construed to confer any right or privilege on a person that is conditioned or limited by law.” That exempts the regulation, the commissioner argued.The appellate court agreed, noting that voters passed a law much earlier in 1988 to create the elected office of insurance commissioner and vest that person authority over setting insurance rates before martial status was added in.

It also noted a provision in law that said the act “defers” to conflicting statutes.Notes by a lawmaker who amended one of the laws also show his intent wasn’t to supersede the authority of the commissioner to establish optional factors for setting insurance rates...