Latest Claims Headlines
All the headlines from our Claims Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Unum Group Reverses 42% of Reviewed Disability Claims
May 2 2008 // In a forced self-review, the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Unum Group agreed to fully or partly reverse 42 percent of previously denied disability claims and paid out $676 million in additional benefits. The Tennessee...
Class-action Suit Filed in Florida against Insurance Deadline
May 2 2008 // Property owners in Florida who had policies with the now-bankrupt Poe Financial Group did not receive sufficient notice of a June deadline to dispute claims in court, lawyers argued April 30 after filing a class-action...
Ark. Regulators: MLK Director Made Misrepresentations in Auto Claims
May 1 2008 // The new director of Arkansas’ Martin Luther King Commission made misrepresentations in insurance claims for traffic accidents tied to an insurance fraud ring, according to a circuit court case filed by the Arkansas...
Industrial Accident in Tennessee Claims Life at Construction Site
Apr 29 2008 // Tennessee officials say a construction worker fell to his death at an Embassy Suites construction site in Murfreesboro. Rutherford County Emergency Medical Services spokesman Randy White says the incident happened around...
Survey: Majority of October’s California Wildfire Claims Settled
Apr 23 2008 // A new survey of insurance companies estimates that nearly 90 percent of claims stemming from the devastating October 2007 fire and wind storms in California have been settled. A poll by the Insurance Information Network of...
Florida Sues Insolvent Poe Directors Over Recovery
Apr 21 2008 // The Florida Department of Financial Services filed a civil lawsuit against the officers, directors and affiliates of three former Florida insurance companies, according to Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Lawyers for...
La. Supreme Court: Flood Exclusion in Insurance Policy is Not Ambiguous
Apr 21 2008 // Finding the flood exclusion in an insurance policy sold by Lafayette Insurance Company to a New Orleans policyholder is unambiguous, the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed, in part, a previous ruling by a state appeals court...
Case Watch
Apr 21 2008 // Additional Insured Evanston Insurance Co. v. Atofina Petrochemicals Inc., Texas Feb. 15, 2008. Contract provision requiring that refinery “shall be named as additional insured” sufficient to trigger additional...
Consumer Advocates Criticize Allstate’s Claims Practices
Apr 21 2008 // A California consumer advocate group is criticizing Allstate for allegedly “systematically underpaying claims to policyholders, or forcing them into protracted court battles to secure a fair...
Prognosis Good in Medical Professional Liability Market
Apr 21 2008 // Tort reform keeping claims frequency down; surplus up, but severity still an issue Tort reform efforts seem to be working, frequency of claims for medical liability is going down, surplus is up and reinsurance capital is...
Climate Change Risk Gives Industry An Opportunity to Be Part of the Solution
Apr 21 2008 // Global warming, the consequence of which is referred to as climate change, is the heating of the earth’s surface temperature caused by man-made activity linked to release of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The burning of...
South Carolina Workers’ Comp Exclusivity Doesn’t Bar Invasion of Privacy
Apr 16 2008 // A South Carolina workers’ compensation exclusivity statute did not bar an employee from filing claims for invasion of privacy and false imprisonment in a psychiatric hospital, according to a U.S. District Court...
Massachusetts Gets $13M from $676M Unum Settlement
Apr 16 2008 // The Massachusetts Division of Insurance, one of three lead state regulators in a multi-state examination of the Unum Group’s handling of disability claims, said the country’s leading writer of disability...
Jury Denies Property Insurance Claim
Apr 16 2008 // After deliberating for three hours, a jury in California has denied an insurance claim because the property damaged was exaggerated, according to the law firm MacGregor & Berthel. Reddy v. Allstate Insurance Co....
Auditor Again Checking North Dakota Injured Workers’ Claims
Apr 15 2008 // A state auditor is doing another check of North Dakota injured workers’ claims to see how many were inappropriately denied. A consultant’s review found only a “handful” of questionable claim...
Mississippi: Insurer Wants Sisters to Pay for Providing Katrina Claims Records to Scruggs
Apr 10 2008 // State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. wants a federal judge to sanction two sisters who secretly copied Hurricane Katrina claims documents and gave them to a Mississippi lawyer whose clients were suing the company. Cori and...
Indicted Alabama Insurance Executive Claims Political Retaliation
Apr 9 2008 // A Montgomery, Ala. insurance executive indicted by a federal grand jury is blaming his legal problems on political retaliation by Republicans, including the governor, a politician the executive once supported but later...
Study: California Workers’ Comp Claims Cost Decreasing
Apr 8 2008 // California’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau has released a study that notes that following workers’ comp reform, statewide average ratios of loss adjustment expense (LAE) to loss per claim...
North Little Rock Twister Claims Tornado Siren; Damages in Millions
Apr 8 2008 // The National Weather Service released a survey of a recent tornado that went from North Little Rock, Ark., into Sherwood and damaged numerous structures at a cost of millions of dollars. Among the casualties was a tornado...
WNS Acquires U.K.’s Auto Insurance Claims Processor Call 24/7
Apr 7 2008 // WNS (Holdings) Limited, a business process outsourcing company, reported that it has acquired Call 24/7 Ltd., an auto insurance claims processing services provider in the United Kingdom. WNS has acquired all shares of...
