Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Insurance Chief Poizner Sues to Block Workers’ Comp Fund Sale
Aug 28 2009 // In a move that was not completely unexpected, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that he will file a lawsuit to have the $1 billion sale of State Compensation Insurance Fund (SCIF) assets declared...
California Sees Rise in Car Insurance Fraud Tied to Economy
Aug 27 2009 // California Department of Insurance commissioner Steve Poizner today announced in Los Angeles that recently compiled statistics show that financially desperate residents and scam artists may be committing more automobile...
Employers Direct Sheds Direct Calif. Workers’ Comp; Will Return with Brokers
Aug 26 2009 // Just a short time after announcing it was leaving the California workers’ compensation insurance market because it was not profitable, Employers Direct Insurance Co. is announcing it is back. The...
California’s State Insurance Fund Sale Considered Unlikely
Aug 26 2009 // The state of California plans to sell off some of its State Compensation Insurance Fund, which writes workers’ compensation policies, for $1 billion. Or does it? A growing number of officials and experts now think...
California Wildfires Called Contained
Aug 25 2009 // Firefighters have surrounded three wildfires that have been burning throughout California for weeks. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says that a wildfire that consumed about 7,800 acres (3,157...
U.S. Courts Rejects California Law on Insurance Claims for Armenians
Aug 24 2009 // A federal appeals court invalidated a California law Thursday that allowed heirs of Armenians killed in the Turkish Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago to seek payment on the life insurance policies of dead relatives. The...
States Give ‘Thumbs Up’ to Fingerprinting Insurance Producers
Aug 21 2009 // Don’t be alarmed, but there are convicted criminals roaming around the country acting as insurance producers. They could be drunk drivers, robbers, forgers, possibly even rapists. They got their producer licenses in...
California Fires Expensive, But State Can Cover
Aug 20 2009 // The price tag for fighting California wildfires during just the past few weeks has climbed to more than $60 million, with the fire season’s peak months still looming ahead. But in a state recently forced to make deep...
Californian Held in State Workers’ Compensation Fund $1.4 Million Fraud
Aug 20 2009 // The California Department of Insurance has announced that Joseph Baiden, 56, of Diamond Bar, surrendered yesterday morning to the Los Angeles Superior Court pursuant to an arrest warrant issued for eight counts of...
California Insurance Firms Help LA Firemen Stay Fit
Aug 20 2009 // Policemen may have the donut problem. But it is firefighters who get all the love these days, as evidenced by the $24,378 gift from Worldwide Facilities, Inc., and Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. to the Los Angeles Fire...
Facebook Sued For Privacy Violation in California
Aug 19 2009 // Five Facebook users have filed a civil lawsuit alleging that the social networking site is violating California’s privacy laws and misleading members about how their personal information is used. The lawsuit, filed...
Seeking to Boost Agency Business, Progressive Offers Web Site Help
Aug 14 2009 // Progressive Insurance wants to ramp up its agency business and plans to turn to a source of strength for its direct sales channel – the Internet – to help make that happen. As Glenn M. Renwick, president and...
California Orders Evacuations as Lockheed Wildfire Spreads
Aug 14 2009 // With strong onshore winds fanning the flames of the Lockheed wildfire in Santa Cruz County, officials have ordered mandatory evacuations for Bonny Doon and Swanton for from 2,200 to 2,400 people. Two structures have burned...
Calif. Workers’ Comp Rating Bureau to Recommend 22.8% Increase in Rates
Aug 13 2009 // The WCIRB will submit a filing to the California Department of Insurance (CDI) recommending an approximate 22.8 percent increase in pure premium rates (or “claims cost benchmark”) effective Jan. 1, 2010. The...
Flocks, Pearson Named to California Workers’ Compensation Bureau
Aug 12 2009 // California Insurance Commissioner Poizner has appointed Sara Flocks, of San Francisco and Lee Pearson, of Rancho Murieta to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau Governing Committee. Pearson, currently...
New Earthquake Risk Models Likely To Reduce Insured Loss Estimates
Aug 6 2009 // Newark, Calif.-based Risk Management Solutions (RMS) has unveiled its next-generation models for North America earthquake risks, covering the United States and Alaska, Canada and Mexico. The new models are likely to lead...
Court: Assault and Battery in Self-Defense Not An Insurance ‘Accident’
Aug 5 2009 // Does a liability insurer have a duty to defend its insured if the insured deliberately commits assault and battery in self-defense? According to the Supreme Court of California, the answer is no, because the act of having...
California Releases New Draft of Pay-As-You-Drive Regulations
Aug 4 2009 // The California Department of Insurance has released a new draft of the Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) regulations, after receiving dozens of comments from consumer groups, the insurance industry and other invested parties, it...
Report: California Must Adapt to Changing Climate
Aug 4 2009 // California will see more heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods due to rising temperatures over the next few decades, and the state needs to start preparing now to handle those effects of climate change, a new report...
USAA Auto Insurance Reduces Auto Rates 7% for Californians
Aug 4 2009 // USAA Auto Group announced it is reducing rates an average of 7 percent for auto policyholders in California. The 10th largest auto insurer in the state, USAA insures nearly 1 million vehicles in California, covering...
