Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Pennsylvania Court Rules in Favor of Evanston Insurance, Cites Policy Exclusion
Jan 5 2017 // The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in December ruled that Evanston Insurance Company is not obligated to defend Tri-Arc Financial Services Inc. in an underlying lawsuit because of an...
Utah Could Have Strictest DUI Limit in U.S. Under This Proposal
Jan 5 2017 // A state lawmaker wants to make Utah’s DUI threshold the strictest in the nation by lowering the blood-alcohol content limit to 0.05 percent. Though state numbers show alcohol-related driving deaths and DUI arrests...
Judge Halves Jury’s $1 Billion Punitive Damages Award in J&J Hip Implant Case
Jan 4 2017 // Johnson & Johnson won a ruling cutting almost in half a $1.04 billion jury award to patients who accused the company of hiding defects in its Pinnacle artificial hips that had to be surgically removed. A judge on...
Florida Judge Finds Pollution Notification Rule is Invalid
Jan 4 2017 // A Florida judge says a rule requiring companies to notify the public of pollution events within 24 hours is invalid. The new rule was pushed by Gov. Rick Scott after it took weeks for the public to be notified about a...
New York Issues First-in-Nation Regulation on Commercial Crime Insurance
Jan 3 2017 // New York State’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) in December issued a new regulation that prohibits insurance companies from denying commercial crime insurance coverage to New York businesses employing people...
Newest Big Thing in Drones Is Technology to Block Them
Jan 3 2017 // A boom in consumer drone sales has spawned a counter-industry of start-ups aiming to stop drones flying where they shouldn’t by disabling them or knocking them out of the sky. Dozens of start-up firms are developing...
Texas Mutual: Judge Upholds State Regulation of Air Ambulances
Dec 30 2016 // A Texas district court judge in Austin has upheld the state’s right to regulate fees paid to air ambulances for transporting patients covered by workers’ compensation insurance, according to Texas Mutual...
Chinese M&A to Continue Despite Regulatory, Policy Hurdles: A.M. Best
Dec 30 2016 // While Chinese companies have been increasing their overseas merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in recent years, there are signs that growth could slow in the coming year, as a result of uncertain economic outlook...
Republicans Ready to Repeal Obamacare, Work Out Replacement Later
Dec 30 2016 // The first major act of the unified Republican government in 2017 will be a vote in Congress to begin tearing down Obamacare. But the euphoria of finally acting on a long-sought goal will quickly give way to the reality...
California DIR Releases Overview of Upcoming New Laws
Dec 29 2016 // The California Department of Industrial Relations has released its 2016 Legislative Digest, which summarizes new laws that impact workers and employers. Most of the chaptered bills are slated to take effect on Jan. 1,...
Greenberg Traurig Adds Gausewitz to Insurance Regulatory Practice in California
Dec 29 2016 // Greenberg Traurig LLP has added Bill Gausewitz as a shareholder to its government law and policy and insurance regulatory and transactions practices in the firm’s Sacramento, Calif. office. Gausewitz focuses his...
Kansas Mom’s Medical Pot Suit Dismissed by Federal Judge
Dec 29 2016 // A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a western Kansas woman against the state and several agencies after her son was removed from her home in 2015 when he told school officials she used marijuana. Shona Banda,...
New York State DFS Issues Updated Proposed Cybersecurity Regulation
Dec 28 2016 // New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) Superintendent Maria T. Vullo has announced that the DFS has updated its proposed cybersecurity regulation to protect New York State from the ever-growing threat of...
Judge Upholds Ban on Guns in Delaware State Parks, Forests
Dec 28 2016 // A Delaware judge has sided with state environmental officials in a lawsuit challenging a ban on non-hunting firearms in state parks and forests. Members of the Bridgeville Rifle & Pistol Club and the Delaware State...
Top 12 Insurance Trends and News Stories of 2016: Countdown
Dec 27 2016 // In the year 2016, as in past years, there were the familiar or continuing stories including reinsurers still wishing and hoping for a hardening market; property/casualty insurance carriers reporting financial results...
Exiting U.S. Mine Safety Chief Hopeful Safety Progress Will Continue
Dec 27 2016 // The nation’s coal mines are headed for another record low year in workplace deaths, and the outgoing federal mine safety chief said he’s hopeful that mining companies will work with the incoming Trump...
State Regulation Report Card: R Street Grades Them from Best to Worst
Dec 22 2016 // For the second year in a row, Vermont has been graded at the top of the class as having the best insurance regulatory system, while North Carolina has again been graded as having the worst, according to the fifth edition...
South Central Regulation Report Card: Texas’ Grade Rises, Arkansas’ Drops
Dec 22 2016 // No South Central state had the best score and none had the worst in a report recently released by a conservative-leaning research organization that annually assesses the effectiveness states’ insurance regulatory...
Midwest Regulation Report Card: States’ Grades Range from A to D
Dec 22 2016 // Grades assigned to the insurance regulatory systems in the Midwest states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin range from A to D in a...
Southeast Regulation Report Card: North Carolina Flunks; Florida, South Carolina Dispute Grades
Dec 22 2016 // North Carolina ranks the worst of all 50 states when it comes to insurance regulation, according to a 2016 insurance regulation report card by an insurance industry think tank. The R Street Institute’s 2016 Insurance...
