Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Republicans Rally Around Call for Legal Immunity for Businesses When They Reopen
May 4 2020 // The top Republicans in the U.S. Congress displayed a united front on Friday in their drive for coronavirus-related liability protections for businesses, saying such measures will be crucial to talks about future relief...
Consumer Groups Oppose Immunity for Businesses From Coronavirus Lawsuits
Apr 30 2020 // U.S. consumer advocates are urging Congress to resist growing demands by companies for protections from coronavirus-related lawsuits as states start to ease pandemic restrictions and businesses begin to reopen. Led by...
Insurers Promote Federal Pandemic Insurance Plan to Congress
Apr 29 2020 // The U.S. insurance industry is promoting the idea of an insurance plan backed by the federal government that would help businesses that in the future suffer losses from a pandemic, people familiar with the effort told...
Key Lawmaker Eyes Ban on Mergers to Protect Small Firms During Coronavirus Crisis
Apr 23 2020 // The chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel on Thursday called for a moratorium on mergers in the next coronavirus stimulus package and a ban on deals that are not directly related to companies about...
Travelers, W.R. Berkley CEOs Sound Alarm Over Coronavirus Lawsuits, Workers’ Comp
Apr 23 2020 // During an earnings conference call Tuesday, the leader of Travelers insurance alerted listeners to the possibility that frivolous lawsuits by plaintiffs lawyers could slow down the economic recovery from COVID-19...
How COVID-19 Impacts the Surplus Lines Insurance Industry
Apr 22 2020 // COVID-19 has majorly disrupted the global economy, and while many business sectors are subjected to temporary shutdowns or bare minimum operations, the insurance industry is racing forward while confronting unprecedented...
Businesses Press Congress for Immunity When States Lift Coronavirus Lockdowns
Apr 21 2020 // Major U.S. business lobbying groups are asking Congress to pass measures that would protect companies large and small from coronavirus-related lawsuits when states start to lift pandemic restrictions and businesses begin...
States Easing Path to Workers’ Compensation Benefits for Coronavirus Workers
Apr 21 2020 // Sympathetic state lawmakers and regulators in states both red and blue promise to make COVID-19 a major cost driver for workers’ compensation insurers. The governors of Kentucky, Arkansas, North Dakota and Florida...
White House Moves to Weaken EPA Rule on Toxic PFA Compounds in Consumer Products
Apr 20 2020 // The Trump White House has intervened to weaken one of the few public health protections pursued by its own administration, a rule to limit the use of a toxic industrial compound in consumer products, according to...
South Carolina Insurance Dept. Makes Staff Changes, Names New Deputy Directors
Apr 20 2020 // The South Carolina Department of Insurance will be implementing a variety of organizational changes that will become effective May 1, 2020. These changes include: Joe Cregan has been named chief deputy of Insurance...
How To Make Your Life Easier, and Richer
Apr 20 2020 // Agency owners can make their lives easier and richer if they follow one simple rule: Run their agency as a business. This means doing what businesses do, including working on the business rather than just in it. This is...
California Supreme Court Ruling Will Enable Montrose to Tap Excess Policies
Apr 20 2020 // A decision earlier this month by the California Supreme Court gave policyholders with long-tail environmental claims a potentially big win, finding that polices within each policy period can be vertically stacked. The...
Facebook Revamps Its Libra Cryptocurrency in Response to Regulatory Backlash
Apr 17 2020 // Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency Libra will be linked to individual national currencies and overseen by global watchdogs in a scaled-back revamp it hopes will win regulatory approval. The prospect of...
Six Things to Know About the Recent Impasse Between Regulators and Insurers in the Aftermath of California’s Devastating Wildfires
Apr 17 2020 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. California’s 2017 and 2018 catastrophic wildfire events hit state insurers historically hard, with record-breaking losses of over $25 billion.1 2 Three years...
Chubb CEO Greenberg Warns Retroactive Measures Would ‘Bankrupt’ Insurance Industry
Apr 16 2020 // Chubb Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg has a stark warning for policy makers pushing insurers to pay out some uncovered business-interruption losses. “The insurance industry is a fundamental part of the...
Judge Clears Way for Shareholder Suit Against Tesla, Musk Over Going-Private Tweet
Apr 16 2020 // A federal judge said Tesla Inc. and Chief Executive Elon Musk must face a lawsuit claiming they misled shareholders when Musk tweeted that he had secured funding to take his electric car company private in a $72 billion...
Why Leaders Need to Resist Rewriting Insurance Contract Language
Apr 16 2020 // Soon after the attacks on the World Trade Center and other locations on the morning of September 11th, President Bush declared that the atrocities were “an act of war.” That statement prompted a call to me from...
Despite Insurance Industry Concerns, More States Introduce COVID-19 BI Bills
Apr 15 2020 // New Jersey was the first state to propose a bill that would mandate insurers cover COVID-19-related losses under their business interruption policies, and the insurance industry was quick to express its concern. But that...
Businesses Warn Fear of Lawsuits Could Stall Rebooting of Economy; Urge Coordination
Apr 15 2020 // Litigation surrounding coronavirus responses is already underway and businesses are warning that the fear of more lawsuits could hinder the reboot of the U.S. economy. Returning America to work will require coordination...
Cyber Criminals Increasingly Will Target Top Executives in Ransomware Attacks: Report
Apr 14 2020 // Senior executives increasingly will be targeted by cyber criminals looking for ways to steal money from large corporations, according to a report from cyber analytics provider CyberCube. Organized criminals and hackers are...
