Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California High Court to Review Industry Custom in Liability Cases
Apr 21 2016 // The California Supreme Court has granted review to consider when and if evidence of industry custom and practice is admissible in a strict products liability action. In Kim v. Toyota Motor Corp. plaintiff William Jae sued...
VW Reported Close to $10 Billion Deal with U.S. for Diesel Fraud
Apr 21 2016 // Volkswagen AG has agreed to set aside at least $10 billion to resolve civil claims by the U.S. government and lawsuits by American car owners over diesel vehicles rigged to cheat pollution controls, a person with direct...
Sierras Along California, Nevada Line Long Overdue for Big Quake
Apr 20 2016 // Scientists say the Sierra’s eastern front is long overdue for a large earthquake along the California-Nevada line, where a magnitude-7 event expected on average every 30 years hasn’t occurred in six...
Three Northern California Insurance Firms Merge
Apr 19 2016 // McDermott Costa Insurance, Mello Insurance Services and Myers‐Stevens Mello & Co. have merged. The firms will conduct business out of the McDermott Costa office in San Leandro. Mello Insurance is based in Fremont and...
Former Southern California Fire Official Gets $704K in Age Discrimination Suit
Apr 19 2016 // A jury has awarded $704,000 to a former division chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District who alleged in a lawsuit he was fired due to his age. The Sun newspaper reported that the 62-year-old George...
California Consumer Group Wants State Farm Homeowners Rate Reduction
Apr 18 2016 // State Farm has overcharged its customers roughly $78 million since at least July 2015, and should be required to refund that money, Consumer Watchdog told the California Department of Insurance last week. The group wants...
$5M Deal Reached Between California and TV Component Makers
Apr 18 2016 // California Attorney General Kamala Harris has reached a nearly $5 million settlement with electronics manufacturers accused of fixing prices. Harris’ office announced the deal with LG, Hitachi, Panasonic, Toshiba and...
California Workers’ Comp Committee Votes for Lower Mid-Year Filing
Apr 18 2016 // The governing committee of the California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau voted unanimously in early April to authorize the WCIRB to submit a mid-year pure premium rate reduction filing to the...
California Court Says Employers Can’t Deny Workers Seats
Apr 18 2016 // Employers cannot deny a worker a place to sit just because they prefer the person stand, and they must consider the employee’s work station, not their overall duties, when determining whether to provide a seat, the...
Government Task Force Will Examine Massive California Natural Gas Leak
Apr 18 2016 // A new U.S. government task force will look into the country’s biggest ever accidental release of methane, which occurred over several months in Los Angeles, Calif., hoping to prevent future leaks of the potent...
RIMS 2016: Star Trek Tools, Workers Comp’s Future Help Draw Biggest Crowd in 13 Years
Apr 15 2016 // Workers’ compensation, geopolitical risks, recalls, disaster response, the captive industry and cyber security were among the topics of sessions held throughout the final day of the annual RIMS conference for risk...
5 Accused in California of More than $635K in Tax, Insurance Fraud
Apr 15 2016 // Five defendants have been arraigned in California for committing over $635,000 in tax and insurance fraud and failing to pay employees prevailing wage on public works contracts, the California Department of Industrial...
Former California Fire Official Wins Age Discrimination Suit, Awarded $704K
Apr 15 2016 // A jury has awarded $704,000 to a former division chief for the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District in California who alleged in a lawsuit he was fired due to his age. The Sun newspaper reported that the...
InterWest Taps Rappleye for Benefits Team in California
Apr 14 2016 // InterWest Insurance Services LLC has named Grant Rappleye to its employee benefits broker team in in Sacramento, Calif. He was formerly a men’s assistant golf coach at California State University...
Organized Crime Ring in California Busted for Auto Collision Fraud
Apr 14 2016 // Juan Ortiz Velazquez, 27, of San Jose, Calif. and owner of Carlos Auto Body, was arrested with seven other suspects and charged with multiple counts of felony insurance fraud on Wednesday for allegedly filing 20 fraudulent...
Burnham Benefits in California Names McVeigh Senior Account Manager
Apr 14 2016 // Irvine, Calif.-based Burnham Benefits Insurance Services Inc. has named Tricia McVeigh a senior account manager. McVeigh will in the trucking, transportation and logistics sector. McVeigh has more than 30 years of...
California Workers’ Comp Board Chairwoman Caplane to Retire
Apr 13 2016 // Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Chairwoman Ronnie Caplane is retiring from state service at the end of the month, it was announced. Caplane was appointed commissioner in 2003 by Gov. Gray Davis, reappointed in...
California Insurance Agent Convicted of Worker’s Comp Insurance Fraud
Apr 13 2016 // Kannai David Scantlen, 41, of Valley Springs, Calif., a former insurance agent conducting business as Kan I Save Insurance Services, was convicted of insurance fraud and sentenced to 60 days, three years of formal...
Jury to Decide If Led Zeppelin Ripped Off ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Licks
Apr 12 2016 // Led Zeppelin founders Jimmy Page and Robert Plant lost their bid to avoid a trial that may rewrite the history of rock n’ roll over song-writing credit for the 1971 classic “Stairway to Heaven.” A federal...
McCaffrey Named Chief Financial Officer of CSAA in California
Apr 11 2016 // Walnut Creek, Calif.-based CSAA Insurance Group has named J. Paul McCaffrey Jr. its chief financial officer. McCaffrey has more than 25 years of experience. Most recently he was executive vice president, CFO and treasurer...
