Latest Claims Headlines

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

Regulators Look for a Clue

Apr 4 2005 // Was it Colonel ChoicePoint in the Conservatory With a Knife? When ChoicePoint Asset Co. finally disclosed Feb. 15 that criminals had gained access to the personal information of as many as 145,000 people in all 50 states,...

Court Upholds Industry Lawsuit: CDI’s Homeowners Regulations Illegal

Apr 4 2005 // Charges by the California Department of Insurance that the California homeowners insurance industry arbitrarily nonrenews or raises rates on homeowners who file one claim or make an inquiry about their coverage is little...

Adjusters can Detect the Problem of Underinsurance Before Disaster Strikes

Apr 4 2005 // In the aftermath of the devastating Southern California wildfires of October 2003, claim adjusters went to work in an area where an estimated 3,631 structures were destroyed. In many cases the only remaining indication of...

Sinkhole or Settling? Fla. Insurance Committee Attempting to Find a Definition

Apr 1 2005 // House Insurance Committee members meeting in Tallahassee, Fla. are attempting to hammer out a bill to better define sinkholes, a common problem in many counties in which entire highways, neighborhoods and houses are...

Fla. Supreme Court Upholds 30-day Deadline for Doctors to File Auto Policy No-Fault Claims

Apr 1 2005 // A State Farm customer and his doctor, who challenged a 30-day deadline for doctors to file claims on a patient’s no-fault auto policy, have lost their claim in the Florida Supreme Court that the provision is...

Fla. CFO Seeks to Clarify Reported Confusion with Storm Claims, Outlines Options to Help Consumers

Mar 30 2005 // Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher on Wednesday raised concerns with confusing policy language and recommended solutions for helping consumers navigate through their homeowners insurance policies and...

Damage from Central Texas Storm Nearing $100 Million

Mar 30 2005 // Two Texas-based insurance industry trade associations released preliminary estimations of the cost of damages from the strong hailstorm that hit Central Texas on Friday, March 24. According to the Southwestern Insurance...

Alabama Insurance Commission Deadline Passes, Insurers Have 30 Days to Pay Claims

Mar 29 2005 // The March 25 deadline, set by the Alabama Department of Insurance for insurers to settle Hurricane Ivan-related claims or report to the department why they have not been settled, has passed and according to a DoI...

Mich. Catastrophic Claims Assessment Up 11%

Mar 25 2005 // The Michigan Claims Catastrophic Association increased its annual assessment to insurers by 11 percent to $141.70 per insured vehicle from $127.24, drawing sharp criticism from the state’s insurance regulator. In a...

ABI Says Authorities Expose $6.55 Million a Week in U.K. Insurance Fraud

Mar 24 2005 // According to figures recently issued Association of British Insurers (ABI), the “net is tightening” on the U.K.’s insurance cheats. The figures show a “dramatic rise in the value of fraudulent...

Law Professors’ Medical Liability Findings Baffle Texas Health Care Community

Mar 24 2005 // The Texas medical community collectively scratched its head recently as newspaper headlines trumpeted a new study claiming that increases in physicians’ medical liability insurance premiums were not the result of...

S.C. Regulators Declare Two Insurance Cos. Insolvent

Mar 24 2005 // South Carolina Insurance Co., part of the Columbia-based Seibels Bruce family, has been declared insolvent by state insurance regulators and will be liquidated. The company and its subsidiary, Consolidated American...

Crawford & Company U.S. Quality Award Program Honors Employee Performance

Mar 23 2005 // Crawford & Company, of Atlanta has announced its 2004 winners of its U.S. Quality Award Program. The program recognizes Crawford employees and branches for consistent outstanding performance in producing a quality...

Pennsylvania Keeps Its Workers’ Compensation Costs Under Control

Mar 21 2005 // Costs per workers’ compensation claim in Pennsylvania rose 6 percent between 2001 and 2002, according to a new report by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Workers Compensation Research Institute. This contrasts with more...

Florida, Alabama Get Tough on Unpaid Claims

Mar 21 2005 // Thousands of irate homeowners mobbed state insurance officials in Florida and Alabama to complain about a wait of more than six months for their claims to be settled from the 2004 hurricanes. Tom Gall-agher, Florida Chief...

More Data Needed?

Mar 21 2005 // In 2003 Texans voted for Proposition 12, which placed limits on jury awards in medical malpractice lawsuits. Currently, the U.S. Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature, among others, are considering similar tort reform...

Workers’ Comp Varies Widely; Reforms Slow to Enact, Enforce

Mar 21 2005 // Employer responsibility for the expense of accidents and in some cases occupational illnesses, varies from state to state. Em-ployers must provide reasonable information, rules, supervision, training and safety. The word...

Roofing Contractors, Workers’ Compensation Insurance and Profits

Mar 21 2005 // Making the Puzzle Pieces Fit Begin a conversation with any roofing contractor with the words workers’ comp insurance and profits in the same sentence and you’ll probably be met with a confused look. By all...

Fla. Cabinet’s Emergency Rule ‘Holds Insurers Feet to the Fire’ to Expedite Open Hurricane Claims

Mar 18 2005 // In response to a call by the Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet has approved an emergency rule to expedite the resolution of open claims from last year’s tropical...

CNA to Sell Med-Mal Claims Service Division

Mar 18 2005 // CNA Financial Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Caronia Corporation, a third-party claims administrator focused on medical professional liability, to Octagon Risk Services, Inc., a subsidiary of...