Moral Hazard: Stand Your Ground Insurance

June 13th, 2012

ThinkProgress links to an insurance plan the NRA endorsed against Stand Your Ground civil and criminal prosecutions:

The insurance — technically endorsed by the NRA and administered by Lockton Affinity exclusively for NRA members — is available as a rider to the “excess personal liability” plan. Here’s how the website advertises the added coverage for self-defense (emphasis in the original):

What’s Covered:

• Provides coverage up to the limit selected for criminal and civil defense costs.

• Cost of civil suit defense is provided in addition to the limit of liability for bodily injury and property damage.

• Criminal Defense Reimbursement is provided for alleged criminal actions involving self-defense when you are acquitted of such criminal charges or the charges are dropped.

Is insurance that pays for attorneys’s fees for criminal prosecutions legal? This would seem to violate some public policy. At the least it is a serious moral hazard.