Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Calif. Supreme Court Limits Employers’ Liability in Workers’ Comp
May 9 2007 // The California Supreme Court has ruled that workers’ compensation reforms adopted in 2004 do not supersede employer apportionment of compensation for permanent disability injuries. In reviewing cases from five...
My New Markets
May 7 2007 // Earthquake Nuts and Bolts: Wholesale Connection Insurance Services, located in Woodland Hills, Calif., added a new carrier to its list of Earthquake markets in California. Dollars: Capacity in zones A, B and E is...
Business Moves
May 7 2007 // Aviva The U.K.-based Aviva Group announced plans to expand in Russia. One year ago, the company launched Aviva Russia, and it is now poised to enter the direct sales market with its Moscow-based direct sales force. The...
Calif. OAL rules agent-broker relationships case not “precedential”
May 7 2007 // The California Department of Insurance (CDI) has been handed a procedural setback in its effort to crack down on agents charging broker fees. Last week, the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) determined that...
California Assembly Insurance Committee passes fraud measure
May 7 2007 // California’s Assembly Insurance Committee has passed Assembly Bill (AB) 1401 on a bi-partisan 8-0 vote. According to the California Department of Insurance, the measure would provide the DOI with additional...
Case Law Watch
May 7 2007 // Anti-assignment Clause Holloway v. Republic Indemnity Co. of America (Oregon, Nov. 16, 2006) Ruling: At issue on this appeal was whether an anti-assignment clause that provided that “[y]our rights or duties under...
News Currents
May 7 2007 // California susceptible to class action lawsuits California’s class action law ranks 46th in the nation in fairness and reasonableness, according to an annual national ranking of state civil justice systems. The only...
People
May 7 2007 // Doug Eden joined Main Street America Group as senior vice president, field operations. Eden will be a member of the company’s senior management team based at its corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Fla. Eden...
Fraud Roundup
May 7 2007 // Calif. State Fund to receive $46,000 Imperial Valley, Calif., County Superior Court Judge Poli Flores has ordered an employee of an El Centro, Calif., hay exporter to pay $45,996 in restitution to the State Compensation...
Declarations
May 7 2007 // Declarations Ongoing battle The California Office of Administrative Law’s ruling is “a major victory for all California insurance producers, ” but “the battle to protect the broker-carrier...
New Markets
May 7 2007 // My New Markets Commercial Auto Nuts & Bolts: Arrowhead General Insurance Agency Inc. has a commercial auto liability and physical damage coverage program for the standard market. Extra heavy vehicles are accepted, and...
Calif. Supreme Court: Signed liability waiver may not protect against gross negligence
May 7 2007 // Is a signed liability waiver useless in protecting a government entity from gross negligence and only good in protecting against ordinary negligence? That is the issue being evaluated by the California Supreme Court. At...
Schwarzenegger proposal suggests combining workers’ comp with group health coverage
May 7 2007 // As part of his health care reform plan unveiled in early January, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing a “24-Hour coverage” program that would combine the medical treatment component of...
Calif. State Fund hires two amid investigation
May 7 2007 // The California State Compensation Insurance Fund has hired Stephen C. Kolakowski as interim chief financial officer and Marjorie Berte as a management consultant as part of its efforts to improve operations. Recently, the...
Van Horn Named Assistant Chief Counsel for Calif. State Fund
May 4 2007 // Bill Van Horn has been promoted to assistant chief counsel for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund’s legal operations in Glendale, Bakersfield, Oxnard and Special Litigation Unit. Van Horn began his...
Slivinski Named Medical Operations Manager for Calif. State Fund
May 3 2007 // Mary Ann Slivinski has been promoted to medical operations manager for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund’s Claims Rehabilitation Department. Slivinski began her State Fund career in 1985 when she was...
Jones Named to State Farm’s Chairman’s Council
May 3 2007 // Greg Jones, senior vice president of State Farm’s California operations, has accepted a promotion to the Illinois-based corporation’s thirteen-member Chairman’s Council effective May 1. The...
Calif. To Hold Workers’ Comp Premium Rate Hearing Today
May 3 2007 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner will hold a hearing today to receive testimony from the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) regarding its pure premium rate recommendation....
Alleghany Buying Calif. Workers’ Comp Specialist Employers Direct
May 1 2007 // Alleghany Corp. has agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of California workers’ compensation writer Employers Direct Corp. for $195 million in cash. EDC, which was founded in 2002, is an insurance holding...
Gas Tanker Crash Melts California Bay Area Overpass
Apr 30 2007 // A gas tanker truck crashed on a heavily used overpass in the San Francisco Bay Area early Sunday morning, causing a large fire, which subsequently melted a 250-yard section of a major expressway just off of the Oakland-San...
