Latest Claims Headlines
All the headlines from our Claims Topic Page, ordered by recency.
State Farm Profit Took Hit in Stormy 2011
Mar 1 2012 // State Farm lost $4.5 billion on its property/casualty underwriting in 2011 – which is $1.3 billion more than it lost in 2010. The Bloomington, Illinois-based mutual insurer cited catastrophe claims as the main reason for...
Alabama Seeks to License Public Adjusters
Mar 1 2012 // Alabama regulators and public adjuster groups are lobbying state lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow the state for the first time to license and monitor the actions of public adjusters. Insurer groups, however, are...
Supreme Court Weighs Foreigners’ Claims Against Corporations
Feb 28 2012 // Corporations and human rights groups are squaring off in a Supreme Court fight over whether foreign victims of war crimes, killings and other atrocities can haul multinational companies into American courts and try to...
Judge Awards Iphone User $850 In Throttling Case
Feb 27 2012 // When AT&T started slowing down the data service for his iPhone, Matt Spaccarelli, an unemployed truck driver and student, took the country’s largest telecommunications company to small claims court. And won. His...
Allianz Posts $3.73 Bn Net Income; Hit by Cat Claims, Sovereign Debt, Banks
Feb 24 2012 // Catastrophe claims and write downs on investments in sovereign bonds and banks were behind the profit fall revealed by Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurance group. On Thursday it reported net income of €2.804 billion...
Court Upholds 1998 Tobacco Deal, Denies North Carolina Firm’s Claims
Feb 24 2012 // The landmark 1998 national settlement between 46 states and 19 tobacco companies is valid and doesn’t amount to a conspiracy or anti-competitive behavior by the government, a federal appeals court ruled this...
Texas Regulators Looking at Ways to Restructure Windstorm Pool
Feb 23 2012 // Texas insurance regulators are seeking a consultant to explore options for restructuring the insurer of last resort for properties along the Texas coast. The Texas Department of Insurance has issued a request for proposal...
Judge: BP, Anadarko, Transocean May Be Liable for Oil Pollution Claims
Feb 23 2012 // BP Plc and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. are liable and Transocean Ltd. may be liable for civil damages under federal pollution laws over the catastrophic 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. judge ruled. Wednesday’s...
ACM Continues Expansion with Opening of Tampa Bay Office
Feb 23 2012 // San Diego, CA, 02/23/12 – American Claims Management, Inc. (ACM), a national third party administrator, has opened an additional office in Tampa Bay, Florida to leverage the Company’s growth in its East Coast,...
South Carolina’s Small Glass Shops Seek to Crack Giant Safelite’s Clout
Feb 23 2012 // How automotive glass repair companies are allowed to access glass claims has become a contentious issue in South Carolina where independent shops are trying to break a national company’s hold on the market. South...
AIG’s Chartis Appoints Head of New Claims, Operations Division
Feb 22 2012 // American International Group’s Chartis, its global P/C business, has placed its claims unit and operations and systems (O&S) unit under a single management team. Eric Martinez — appointed as executive vice...
5 States May Intervene in California Honda Small Claims Case
Feb 21 2012 // A judge last week granted California and four other states more time to consider objecting to a class-action settlement between Honda Motor Co. and car owners over inflated fuel-efficiency claims about the...
Cruise Ship Industry Leaves Crash Victims Little Hope for Recovery
Feb 21 2012 // When Walter Henry Alderfer learned last month about the Costa Concordia shipwreck off Italy, it brought back bad memories. In April 2007, he, his wife and his daughter were aboard the Sea Diamond cruise ship when it struck...
How Workers’ Comp Is Handling Aging Workforce
Feb 20 2012 // The aging workforce may not have the negative impact on loss costs that workers’ compensation insurers have feared. New research from the industry’s National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) also...
Is Common Law Bad Faith Dying in Texas?
Feb 20 2012 // When a carrier is sued for denying a claim, it is usual for policyholders to raise claims of bad faith. For decades now, policyholders have frequently pled both common law (i.e., law created by cases) and statutory (i.e.,...
Fairfax Financial’s Quarterly Loss Widens on Cat Claims
Feb 17 2012 // Fairfax Financial Holdings, the property and casualty insurer run by investment guru Prem Watsa, said on Thursday that its fourth-quarter loss widened by 56 percent due to catastrophe claims and losses on the...
P/C Industry Disputes Consumer Group’s Claims It’s Avoiding Risk
Feb 17 2012 // Traditionally risk-takers, property/casualty insurance companies have become more like risk-avoiders when it comes to weather-related claims, leaving consumers and taxpayers to pay much higher costs, according to a new...
Lawsuit Claims Oahu Pet Store Lopped Off Dog Ear, Cut Tail
Feb 16 2012 // Two dog owners filed a lawsuit claiming their pets were mutilated while being groomed at an Oahu pet store. The lawsuit filed in state court Monday said plaintiff Gladys Kapuwai dropped off her dog Dodo for grooming at the...
Minnesota Company Seeks Law Change on Asbestos Claims
Feb 16 2012 // A company with three manufacturing plants in southern Minnesota wants a change in state law in order to shield itself from future asbestos claims. Crown Holdings Inc. says its 1963 merger with a rival company left it with...
Citigroup to Pay $158M in Whistleblower Fraud Claim Over Insurance for Mortgages
Feb 16 2012 // Citigroup Inc. has agreed to pay $158.3 million to settle U.S. civil claims that it defrauded the government into insuring thousands of risky home loans made by its CitiMortgage unit. Wednesday’s settlement resolves...