A Meridian woman’s years-long push to get state law changed regarding notification of a lapse in life insurance policies is making some headway, reports Times-News reporter Nathan Brown. He writes that Kathy Peterson got a version of her bill introduced in 2014, but it never got a full hearing; but she’s getting some assurance this year that lawmakers will consider her proposal. You can read Brown’s full report here.

For Peterson, it’s personal, Brown writes. After her mother died in 2012, Peterson and her siblings never got the $100,000 life insurance payment because, they were told, the policy had lapsed. The insurance company said her mother had stopped paying and they notified her by mail; Peterson says her mother, who paid premiums for almost 30 years, was told both by phone and by letter in 2007 that the policy was paid in full, and that she never got anything in the mail threatening to cancel it after that.

“We felt like victims of fraud,” Peterson said. Peterson went to court, but the case was dismissed. That’s when she began to push for the bill. The current version would require notification by first-class mail, which is done now, for a first warning, and then by certified mail for a second if no response is received. Peterson has spent much time in the Capitol rotunda this year, carrying a sign calling for a hearing on her bill.