Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
North Carolina Touts Strong First Year with Captives
Sep 17 2014 // In less than a year since its captive-enabling legislation went into effect, North Carolina says it is making progress towards its goal of becoming a leading captive domicile. To date, the North Carolina Department of...
Update: Syncora, Detroit Settle; Judge Pauses Bankruptcy Trial Again
Sep 17 2014 // U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ordered a week-long break in Detroit’s bankruptcy trial on Sept. 16, giving the last major objector to the city’s restructuring plan time to rework its case. The hearing will...
House Passes Measure to Ease Insurance Capital Standards Under Dodd-Frank
Sep 17 2014 // The Federal Reserve would get more flexibility to set separate capital standards for systemically important insurance companies under legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The measure, adopted yesterday...
Self-driving Cars Could Require Overhaul of Insurance Regulation
Sep 16 2014 // What is an autonomous vehicle? As demonstrated in a Sept. 15 California Department of Insurance informational hearing, that’s a misleadingly simple question. Regulators’ attempt to stay in front of the curve,...
The Problem with Domestic Excess & Surplus Lines Insurers
Sep 16 2014 // It has been more than five years since states, beginning with Illinois, began to enact laws permitting the formation and licensing of domestic excess and surplus lines insurers. To date, these initiatives have gotten very...
London Financial Leaders Weigh Risks of Scotland Shock
Sep 12 2014 // As Scotland stares history in the face, London’s financial guardians are preparing for their worst-case scenario. Six days before a referendum that could see Scotland ending its 307-year political bond with the...
Dewhurst to Lawmakers: How About Shutting Down Texas Windstorm Insurer?
Sep 11 2014 // Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has asked state lawmakers to consider shutting down a windstorm insurance provider for coastal Texans. Dewhurst asked a state Senate committee to look at phasing out the Texas Windstorm...
How Strong Is Florida’s ‘Revived’ Homeowners Market?
Sep 11 2014 // As Florida seeks to revive its private home insurance market after almost a decade without a hurricane, homeowners are pouring $6 billion a year in premiums into a new generation of small, in-state insurance companies with...
Judge Worried Freedom Industries to Abandon Chemical Spill Cleanup
Sep 10 2014 // A bankruptcy judge is concerned that a chemical company may abandon the site of a massive January spill without cleaning it up. Judge Ronald Pearson expressed the concern in an order filed last Friday in U.S. Bankruptcy...
West Virginia Nixes Special Session on Storage Tank Rules
Sep 10 2014 // West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin plans to use administrative fixes instead of a special session to adjust a law regulating above-ground storage tanks. On Monday, Tomblin’s top environmental official spelled out a...
Is There a House Republican Deal on Export-Import Bank, Terrorism Insurance?
Sep 9 2014 // Representative Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican who has been a key opponent of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, now supports a short-term extension of the bank’s mandate, opening the door to a temporary reprieve for...
Supreme Court May Get ‘Disparate Impact’ Housing Case
Sep 8 2014 // It’s not easy to prevent the Supreme Court from deciding an issue once the justices have agreed to hear a case. But over the past two years, civil rights advocates have managed to do just that by coaxing settlements...
Maryland’s Montgomery County Tells Uber to Follow Taxi Rules
Sep 8 2014 // Maryland’s Montgomery County officials want to know how Uber expanded its popular ride-sharing service into Bethesda without applying for county licenses. The Washington Post reports the county is demanding that Uber...
Judge Denies Class Action for Employees Suing Florida’s Darden Restaurant
Sep 8 2014 // A U.S. judge has ruled that food servers and bartenders employed by Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns chains including Olive Garden, the Capital Grille and LongHorn Steakhouse, cannot sue the company as a group for...
Florida’s Crist, Scott Spar Over Property Insurance in Race for Governor
Sep 8 2014 // Democrat Charlie Crist said he successfully reduced rising property insurance rates as governor and will do so again if elected, vowing to repeal a law enacted under Republican Gov. Rick Scott that he said provides weaker...
High on Marijuana Insurance
Sep 8 2014 // Specialty brokers looking to get insurers hooked on emerging industry The legal marijuana industry in the United States is experiencing tremendous growth. Legal cannabis markets in the United States are expected to grow...
Judge’s Ruling Leaves Florida Workers’ Comp System in Limbo
Sep 8 2014 // Business interests are expected to appeal a recent ruling by a Florida circuit court judge that the state’s workers’ compensation law is unconstitutional because it no longer provides adequate benefits to...
Kentucky Preparing Emergency Regulations for Rideshare Firms
Sep 5 2014 // Kentucky state regulators are preparing emergency regulations that will go into effect next month to govern ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft as they expand their services into Kentucky cities. The companies offer a...
MetLife May Fight Systemic Risk Designation
Sep 5 2014 // Insurer MetLife said it is exploring ways to fight the U.S. government’s proposal on Thursday to deem it “systemically important” and subject it to stronger regulatory oversight. MetLife is the third...
Detroit Bond Insurer to Judge: Debt Plan Causes ‘Serious Mayhem’
Sep 5 2014 // Detroit’s proposal to exit its record municipal bankruptcy by paying retirees more than bond investors will cause “serious mayhem,” an attorney for the plan’s opponents told a judge. Marc...
