TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Allstate Corp.'s insurance companies can resume selling new car insurance and other policies in Florida, the state's insurance regulator said Friday.

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty lifted the suspension because he said Allstate has turned over documents that regulators demanded along with an affidavit that everything being sought was included.

The state had said since January that the company hadn't sufficiently complied with subpoenas seeking information about how Allstate sets homeowners insurance rates. McCarty moved then to suspend the company, but it appealed. An appeals court this week upheld the suspension and it went into effect Wednesday.

Allstate spokesman Adam Shores said the company was telling agents they could immediately begin selling policies again and that Allstate officials were pleased at the resolution of the dispute.

"This allows us to resume offering insurance protection to Floridians," said Shores. "We're looking forward to having a continuous dialogue with the (state Office of Insurance Regulation) and other leaders about solutions to the property insurance market."

It's not clear how much business Allstate might have lost by being unable to sell for a little more than two days. But the company is the second-largest auto insurer in Florida, with about 1.7 million policies in force. The existing policies weren't affected by regulators' actions.

McCarty made it clear that to be able to continue to do business, the company must keep cooperating.

"Failure to cooperate with necessary, ongoing requests from the office will result in an immediate resumption of the suspension," McCarty said in a statement.

Officials said the Northbrook, Ill.-based company has produced more than 825,000 pages of documents - most of them since the agency moved to suspend the company Jan. 17.

State insurance regulators have battled insurers for more than a year, since lawmakers passed a law in January 2007 that was aimed at lowering property insurance premiums. Companies were compelled to lower rates by a certain amount, but then were allowed to file updated "true up" filings meant to reflect their true rate needs.

Many companies, including Allstate, filed for increased rates, much to the chagrin of state officials and politicians, who were promising relief from spiraling property coverage premiums in the wake of the big hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005. Allstate initially asked for an increase of more than 40 percent, despite the new law meant to make insurance cheaper.

That filing was part of the build up to the Office of Insurance Regulation seeking to investigate how the company sets its rates, and what its relationship is with various insurance industry trade groups.

In January, the company went before agency officials in a hearing that was scheduled to go two days. But officials from McCarty's office cut it short after just two hours during which company officials and lawyers were pressed by regulators about why they hadn't supplied all the documents the state wanted. McCarty moved a couple days later to suspend the company.

In a separate case arising out of the same investigation, Allstate is accused of falsely representing that some information was protected as trade secrets. Company executives also are accused of falsely certifying to the accuracy of some documents. That case is before an administrative judge, and if the judge rules the company broke additional laws, the state could again pursue another suspension, said McCarty. A hearing in that case is scheduled for June 16.


(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)