Latest California Headlines

All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.

ELAN Calls for State Senate Investigation Into Executive Life Settlement

Feb 16 2005 // The Executive Life Action Network, an activist group of former Executive Life Insurance Co. policyholders, called on California State Senator Jackie Speier, Chairperson of the Senate Insurance Committee, to investigate the...

CAAA: Workers’ Comp Carriers’ Profits up 25%-36%

Feb 15 2005 // Fourth quarter and 2004 annual earnings statements from leading California workers’ compensation insurance carriers are coming in, and profits are reportedly up by 25% to 36% over 2003 – and 2003 was already...

Man with Multiple Identities Indicted on Federal Charges in International Scam

Feb 14 2005 // Matthew Wallace Schachter, aka Robert Lewis Brown, aka Matthew C. Rollins (Brown), 58, was indicted last week on federal charges relating to an insurance fraud scheme that allegedly netted more than $20 million over the...

IICF Hosts First Annual Club100 Private Party Feb. 26

Feb 10 2005 // The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation Inc. will be hosting it’s very first annual Southern California Club100 Private Party on Saturday, Feb. 26, at the Napa Rose inside Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel...

“Operation Scorpion” Nets Nine in Fraud Scheme

Feb 9 2005 // Authorities arrested nine auto body shop owners and employees, charging them with various felony counts of insurance fraud following “Operation Scorpion,” a joint investigation by the California Department of...

Some California Doctors Leaving Workers’ Comp System

Feb 8 2005 // Francis Pecoraro is trading a San Francisco Bay area medical practice that mainly serves injured workers for one in Wilmington, N.C., that he believes will be friendlier to doctors and doctors’ families. Pecoraro,...

Mercury General Announces 4Q Results

Feb 7 2005 // Los Angeles-based Mercury General Corporation reported net income of $74.1 million ($1.36 per share- diluted), in the fourth quarter 2004 compared with $49.2 million ($0.90 per share-diluted), in the same period for...

People & Places

Feb 7 2005 // Michael Miller Scottsdale Insurance Company named Michael D. Miller as president and chief operating officer. Miller replaces retiring SIC President R. Max Williamson. Miller has more than 27 years of experience in the...

Calif. Chiropractor, Associates Nabbed in $10M Workers’ Comp Scam

Feb 7 2005 // A Modesto, Calif. chiropractor and two employees were arrested on charges that they repeatedly billed for services that were unnecessary or never rendered from 1996 through 2004, potentially costing insurers more than $10...

Sexual Harassment Training Now Mandatory in California

Feb 7 2005 // For the first time, California now mandates that employers with 50 or more employees provide sexual harassment training to their supervisors. On Sept. 29, 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a statute that...

Calif. Appeals Court Dismisses Claims of Former State Farm Agents

Feb 7 2005 // A California appellate court in San Francisco dismissed the claims of two former State Farm insurance agents in a lawsuit filed against the giant insurer over wrongful termination. The court also ordered a new trial in the...

State Compensation Insurance Fund President Oki Announces Retirement

Feb 5 2005 // State Compensation Insurance Fund announced that after three years of leading California’s largest workers’ compensation insurer, Fund President Dianne Oki will retire in the coming month after a 37-year career...

Insurers Agree to $93M Settlement over Hazardous Waste Site in California

Feb 4 2005 // California has won a $93 million settlement with 16 insurance companies over cleanup costs at a notorious hazardous waste site. Lloyd’s of London, one of the state’s major insurers, will pay $49 million of the...

Five Northern Californians Arrested on Charges of Insurance Fraud

Feb 4 2005 // On Jan. 13, 2005, Victor Morales Delgado and his brother-in-law, Jose Guerrero, both of Sacramento, self-surrendered to investigators with the California Department of Insurance Organized Auto Insurance Task Force (Task...

RGI Insurance Unveils New Web Site

Feb 2 2005 // Laguna Hills, Calif.-based RGI Insurance Services, one of California¹s largest medical malpractice insurance agencies, announced the grand opening of its new Web site: http://www.RGIinsurance.com. RGI Executive Vice...

Alliance Responds to Lawsuit Aimed at Agent/Broker Contingency Commissions

Feb 2 2005 // The American Agents Alliance, representing over 2,000 independent agents and brokers in California and Arizona, criticized attorney Norman Goldman for filing an amendment to a compliant he filed in 2003 against Aon...

Calif. Man Arrested on Workers’ Comp Fraud, Embezzlement Charges

Feb 1 2005 // On Jan. 31, Gregg Leo Curwick, of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., surrendered himself in Bakersfield to investigators from the California Department of Insurance’s Fraud Division and the Kern County District...

Fremont General Reports Developments in Pending Litigation with the California Commissioner

Feb 1 2005 // On Jan. 25, 2005, the Fremont General Corporation’s motions to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the State of California Insurance Commissioner on behalf of Fremont Indemnity Company against Fremont General were argued...

Calif. Commissioner Helps Issue $3 Million to Charity; Funds Initiate $20 Million Claim Settlement

Jan 27 2005 // California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Wednesday helped deliver the first checks from a $20 million settlement of a class action lawsuit to resolve insurance claims stemming from the Armenian Genocide nearly...

Fireman’s Fund Notes Personal Insurance for More than 28,000 Professional Firefighters in California

Jan 27 2005 // Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company has announced a personal insurance benefit program, including automobile and homeowner’s coverage, for the more than 28,000 members of the California Professional Firefighters...