Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Montana Supreme Court Rules in Aluminum Baseball Bat Case
Aug 1 2011 // The Montana Supreme Court has awarded $850,000 to the family of a 18-year-old pitcher who was killed by a baseball hit off an aluminum bat. The aluminum baseball bat was not designed defectively, but the manufacturer...
Hawaii Restores Coverage for Construction Defect Claims
Aug 1 2011 // Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has signed legislation its supporters hope will restore coverage for construction defect claims under a commercial general liability (CGL) policy that was called into question by a 2010 court...
Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...
Dodd-Frank Anniversary: What About Insurance?
Aug 1 2011 // The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act rewrote the landscape of the financial markets and it has permeated all sectors of the global economy. A year after the Dodd-Frank Act was signed, there...
Surplus Lines Law In Effect; Taxes Up in Air
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act arrived on July 21. States have been scrambling over the past year to update their surplus lines laws to comply with NRRA requirements and to...
California Surplus Lines Bill Signed Into Law
Aug 1 2011 // Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation (Assembly Bill 315) that brings California in line with provisions in the new federal surplus lines insurance law, the Non-admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2010 (NRRA), which...
People
Aug 1 2011 // Joseph Waked was named CEO of Buena Park, Calif.-based Freeway Insurance, a subsidiary of New York-based Confie Seguros. He will have responsibility for California, Texas and Arizona. Waked replaces Freeway’s former...
Ready or Not, New Surplus Lines Law Is Here
Aug 1 2011 // The implementation deadline for the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act has arrived. States have been scrambling over the past year to update surplus lines laws that will conform with NRRA requirements, while agents and...
Judge Releases Mass. Agency from 9/11 Lawsuit
Jul 29 2011 // The Massachusetts Port Authority was dismissed as a defendant from the last pending wrongful death lawsuit related to the Sept. 11 attacks, leaving United Airlines and a security company facing a trial in which airport...
Contractors Acting As Public Insurance Adjusters Irk States
Jul 29 2011 // Public adjusting activity is not welcome or licensed in all states and even in some where it is, the practice is coming under close scrutiny. In particular, states are cracking down on roofing and other contractors who...
House Committee Hears Concerns on Surplus Lines Reform Tax Issue
Jul 28 2011 // Just days after the surplus line reform legislation became effective, federal legislators heard comments from industry insiders on concerns regarding the implementation of provisions in the bill, including how states will...
Long-Time Virginia Insurance Commissioner Gross Dies
Jul 28 2011 // Alfred W. Gross, who served as insurance commissioner for the state of Virginia for 14 years until he retired last year, has passed away, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Gross...
Florida Citizens Proceeds with Bid for 400% Sinkhole Rate Hike
Jul 28 2011 // Florida residents who purchase sinkhole insurance through the state-back Citizens Property Insurance Corp. could be looking at increases of more than 400 percent for the optional coverage next year. By a 4-0 vote, the...
Lehman Executives, Auditor Must Defend Investor Lawsuit, Judge Rules
Jul 27 2011 // Former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. executives, directors, auditors and underwriters on Wednesday lost their bid to dismiss an investor lawsuit seeking to hold them responsible for losses tied to the investment...
Conn. Demands Unemployment Payments from Businesses
Jul 27 2011 // Tens of thousands of businesses in Connecticut are receiving bills from the state to pay $30 million in interest this year for state borrowing from the federal government for unemployment insurance benefits. About 73,000...
North Carolina House Joins Senate to Override Veto of Malpractice Cap
Jul 27 2011 // Victims of North Carolina doctors guilty of medical malpractice will be limited to $500,000 what they can collect for pain, suffering and lost body parts under legislation the state House passed into law over a veto by...
Alaska Joins State Surplus Lines Coalition
Jul 26 2011 // Members of the Non-Admitted Insurance Multi-State Agreement coalition are proud to welcome Alaska to the NIMA group. Insurance Director Linda Hall signed on behalf of Alaska, which collected $109 million in excess and...
California WC Appeals Board Takes Back Physician Ruling
Jul 26 2011 // Just a few months after the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board ruled that a non-approved physician’s report cannot be used to support workers’ compensation eligibility, it is reconsidering...
Judge Blasts West Virginia Medical Damages Cap
Jul 25 2011 // A West Virginia judge who helped West Virginia’s Supreme Court hear a recent medical malpractice case is blasting the outcome. First Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson dissented sharply on Friday with last month’s...
MetLife to Sell Banking Unit to Avoid ‘Too Big To Fail’ Regulation
Jul 22 2011 // MetLife, the largest life insurance company in the United States, has put its banking operations up for sale to avoid the “too big to fail” regulatory scrutiny that analysts have said was likely. MetLife said...
