Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Court Rejects $11 Million Award Against Mitsubishi
Jun 21 2010 // A Maine couple shouldn’t receive $11 million from Mitsubishi Motors for the 2004 death of their son, the Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled last week. In a 2-1 ruling, the appeals court threw out the 2008 jury...
Declarations
Jun 21 2010 // Not Up to Speed “I don’t think speed is in your vocabulary yet. People are just trying to survive.” —Florida CFO Alex Sink telling BP senior VP Bob Fryar his company is not moving quickly enough to pay...
Florida Deregulates Certain Commercial, Professional Liability Lines for Pricing
Jun 21 2010 // Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has signed into law a bill exempting certain commercial and professional liability insurance rates from state review prior to use. Current state law exempts only those policies with annual...
MGAs Key to Florida’s Property Market, Say Officials, Execs
Jun 21 2010 // Several of Florida’s insurers with affiliated managing general agencies (MGAs) have come in for criticism recently but there is no widespread problem with the MGA model, regulators and insurance executives agree. In...
Florida Reinsurance Prices Decline 10% But Challenges Remain at Renewal
Jun 21 2010 // Reinsurance pricing at the June 1 Florida renewal are down by 10 percent to 12 percent on average, on a year-over-year risk adjusted basis. That’s according to reinsurance intermediary Guy Carpenter & Co., which...
FAIA’s Grady: Florida Needs to Improve Its Insurance Reputation
Jun 21 2010 // The following are excerpts from a wide-ranging interview by Insurance Journal’s Andy Simpson with Jeff Grady, president and CEO, Florida Association of Insurance Agents, from Grady’s Tallahassee...
Florida Market Still Frustrates Surplus Brokers
Jun 21 2010 // It has been quiet on the oceanfront in Florida in terms of hurricanes and tropical storms the past few years. However, the low catastrophe frequency has contributed to an extremely soft and competitive insurance market for...
Latin Agent Groups Growing, Starting Up, Going ‘Mainstream’
Jun 21 2010 // Florida Group Stresses Educational Offerings, Serving Non-Latin Agents Following the success of agents in Florida and California, a group of New York insurance agents has launched a new trade group for Latin insurance...
Florida Chief McCarty Calls for ‘Substantive Change’ in Property Market
Jun 21 2010 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty thinks the time has come for the private insurance industry and public leaders to move beyond debating regulation of insurance rates and “be open and willing to make...
Oil Fears May Hurt Gulf States’ Economies More Than BP Spill
Jun 18 2010 // Fear that oil from a huge BP Plc spill will damage Mississippi’s coast is hurting the state’s economy more than oil damage itself, according to a new report. Tourists are staying away from restaurants and...
Squatters Taking Over Abandoned Homes in Florida
Jun 18 2010 // Imagine going to a house or condo you own and finding a stranger living there who claims the property no longer belongs to you. It’s happening across Florida and other parts of the country through what authorities...
Florida Allows XL Re to Operate Under Lower Collateral Rule
Jun 18 2010 // Florida officials have agreed to allow Bermuda-based reinsurer XL Re Ltd. to participate in Florida’s insurance marketplace under rules calling for reduced collateral. According to the Florida Office of Insurance...
Florida Jury Gets Chinese Drywall Case
Jun 18 2010 // A jury in Florida is set to begin deliberations in a lawsuit over the damages owed to owners of a house built with defective Chinese drywall. Attorneys say the verdict in the case of Armin and Lisa Seifart of Miami will...
Non-Resident Blogger Can Be Sued in Florida Over Defamation
Jun 18 2010 // The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that a non-resident blogger can be sued in the state for posting allegedly defamatory comments about a Florida company on her out-of-state Web site. In a unanimous opinion, the court...
Florida CFO Sink Intercedes for Local Businessman with BP
Jun 17 2010 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink was in the middle of a dramatic confrontation at a BP oil spill claims office Tuesday after going to bat for a distraught owner of a bait and tackle shop. Sink, who is a Democratic...
Florida Hopes to Settle BP Claims Outside of Courts
Jun 16 2010 // BP Plc has done a poor job settling oil spill claims quickly and efficiently but pursuing the claims in court might be worse, Florida officials said Tuesday. Governor Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum have...
Producer Development: Combined Agents of America Keeps It In-House
Jun 14 2010 // Mark Bridges and Bry Ewan got the idea for creating a producer development program within the Combined Agents of America (CAA) while attending a producer school in Florida. Bridges explained that during his first year in...
Florida Certifies Updated AIR Hurricane Model
Jun 14 2010 // AIR Worldwide (AIR) is reporting the certification of its 2010 U.S. Hurricane Model by the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology. The commission certifies models for use by insurers for developing...
Florida Parents Sue Boy Scouts Over Teen’s Death
Jun 11 2010 // The parents of a teen who died of heat stroke during a South Florida hike with his Boy Scouts troop is suing the organization. Attorneys for Howard Adelman and Judith Sclawy-Adelman filed the suit in Miami-Dade circuit...
Mississippi, Florida AGs Putting Pressure on BP
Jun 11 2010 // Attorneys general in Florida and Mississippi are upping the political pressure on BP over the oil gusher that is threatening their states and the entire Gulf Coast. Florida Attorney General McCollum sent a letter to BP...
