Robert H. Joost; Lawyer and Car Insurance Expert

Robert H. Joost, 70, a Capitol Hill lawyer who battled bipolar disorder and its debilitating stigma, died Feb. 19 at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville of pneumonia and other complications of Parkinson's disease. He was a Bethesda resident.

Mr. Joost, an expert on no-fault auto insurance, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder while a student at Harvard Law School. The illness, which he openly acknowledged, and the primitive treatments available during the early years of his career made for a constant struggle to do his job.

According to his wife, Elaine Economides Joost, the Massachusetts legal establishment tried to prevent him from taking the bar exam because of his illness, but he persevered and passed easily.

Once he was diagnosed, he did extensive research on the illness. Reading a report about a new drug, lithium, he pressed his doctors to allow him to try it. "Once he got the lithium, it was a silver bullet," his wife said.

"What would have been the nature of his career had he not faced this struggle, no one can tell," she added. "But what's noteworthy is how he kept on and retained his commitment to and focus on public policy."

Mr. Joost was born in New York City and graduated with a political science degree in 1957 from Yale University, where he won a Ten Eyck prize for oratory. At Harvard Law School, he was editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received his degree, magna cum laude, in 1968. He taught briefly at the New England School of Law in Boston and also worked for a New York City law firm.

In a 1971 New York Times opinion piece, he wrote: "Automobile insurance rates go up and up, seemingly without end; the courts are jammed with automobile-claims cases that tarry for years; the injured receive as benefits less than half the money paid in as premiums."

Mr. Joost argued that the solution was the "no-fault" concept as proposed by Sens. Warren G. Magnuson (D-Wash.) and Philip A. Hart (D-Mich.). He blamed his former employer, the American Trial Lawyers Association, for helping perpetuate a system that ignored the best interests of the consumer.

He came to Washington in 1971 to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Magnuson, and in 1972 joined the Commerce Committee staff. Over the years he drafted a number of pieces of legislation on no-fault auto insurance and continued to speak and write on its merits throughout his life. He also crafted bills on hazardous materials, endangered species, the Conrail system and other issues in addition to auto insurance.

In 1992, he published "Automobile Insurance and No-Fault Law," and he produced annual supplements until his retirement in 2003.

Mr. Joost also worked as a lawyer with the D.C. Law Revision Commission, as a judgment officer with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and as chairman of the Board for Correction of Military Records of the Coast Guard Court.

Approaching retirement, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease but continued advocating for public policy issues that interested him. These included working to prevent political restrictions on scientific inquiry, particularly constraints on stem-cell research.

His marriage to Christiane Joost-Gaugier ended in divorce.

Survivors, in addition to his wife of 20 years, of Bethesda, include two children from his first marriage, Leonarda Joost of West Bethel, Maine, and Nathalie Joost of Alexandria.