Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mass. Lawmakers Urge Federal Inspections of Nation’s Tunnels
Jul 17 2007 // Massachusetts lawmakers say a federal safety board’s report on last year’s fatal Big Dig ceiling collapse gives a boost to their push for a national tunnel inspection program aimed at preventing future...
Merck Asks Judge to Reduce $47.5 Million Vioxx Award to Idaho Man
Jul 17 2007 // Merck & Co. is urging a New Jersey judge to slash a jury’s $47.5 million award to an Idaho postal worker who successfully sued the drugmaker over a heart attack he blamed on Merck’s since-withdrawn Vioxx...
Mass. To Test Drive Competitive Rating for Auto Insurance for First Time in 30 Years
Jul 16 2007 // The last time — January, 1977 — Massachusetts tried to introduce competitive rating into private passenger auto insurance, a Democrat, Michael Dukakis, was governor. The experiment lasted about seven months before...
Federal Judge Cites Municipal Immunity in Nixing Award Against Conn. Town
Jul 12 2007 // A federal judge has thrown out a $2.5 million jury award against the town of East Haven, Conn. in connection with the police killing of a 21-year-old man in 1997. U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson, in a decision last...
Insurance Group Urges Defeat of Wis. Auto Repair Shop Legislation
Jul 11 2007 // The American Insurance Association (AIA) today urged Wisconsin legislators to reject two bills that would make it illegal for insurers to provide their customers valuable information after a car accident. “These...
Judge in La. Won’t Force Prosecutor to Enter Katrina Whisteblower Case
Jul 11 2007 // A federal judge in New Orleans on June 9 withdrew an order challenging U.S. Attorney David Dugas for not intervening in a whistleblowers’ lawsuit that accuses insurance companies of overbilling the federal government...
Tenn. Supreme Court Rules Marijuana Not a Factor in Worker’s Injury
Jul 9 2007 // The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a worker whose hand was crushed by machinery at his workplace was not to blame for the accident despite his admitted marijuana use off the job. Billy McIntosh was injured in 2004...
Mattress Manufacturers Awake to New U.S. Flammability Standards
Jul 6 2007 // It took less than three minutes for the old mattress to become a flaming inferno. And even inside the safe confines of a Sealy Corp. testing lab in North Carolina, it took a technician armed with a gas mask and fire...
Senate Confirms Marsh Counsel Sullivan to be U.S. Judge
Jul 6 2007 // The U.S. Senate has confrmed Richard J. Sullivan to serve as a district judge on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. Sullivan currently serves as general counsel for Marsh Inc., Marsh &...
Fla. CFO Cuts State’s Workers Comp Charge to Insurers
Jul 5 2007 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink ordered a 50 percent cut in the 2008 Workers’ Compensation Administration Trust Fund assessment rate. The reduction is projected to result in as much as $19 million in...
Guy Carp Issues UK Liability Survey
Jul 5 2007 // Guy Carpenter & Company, the global risk and reinsurance specialist of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, has published “A Year in Review – 2006 Update,” its fourth annual review of the liability...
S&P: Outlooks on Most Asia-Pacific Insurance Markets is Stable
Jul 5 2007 // The Hong Kong office of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a report affirming the stable outlook on most of the insurance markets in the Asia-Pacific region. “They reflect strengthening balance...
Nevada Consumers Puzzle over Using Credit History to Set Rates
Jul 5 2007 // As Ed Rathje sees it, his first foray into the Nevada Legislature as a citizen-activist ended in “total defeat” earlier this month when a bill he was pushing to limit the insurance industry’s use of...
Insurer Group: La. Legislature Acts to Revive Marketplace
Jul 2 2007 // The Louisiana Legislature adjourned last week after sending to the governor a series of bills including one that abolishes the state’s insurane rating board. The enactment of HB 960, which abolishes the Louisiana...
Drinking Buddies Not Liable as Social Hosts, Mass. Court Rules
Jul 2 2007 // The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that friends who meet regularly after work for drinks cannot be held liable for injuries caused when one of the members of their group drives home intoxicated. The court ruled that...
Lawyers, businesses groups tackle Oregon product liability laws
Jul 2 2007 // Business advocates and trial lawyers could be headed for a showdown over Oregon’s product liability laws before the legislative session comes to its scheduled end, and the verdict is anything but certain. The fight...
Focus key to surviving insurance industry challenges
Jul 2 2007 // The “big problems” facing insurance agents and brokers today are human resources; government intervention; sustaining agency revenue growth/profit; maintaining a consistent company strategy and tactics; and...
Judge sides with Okla. AG on challenges to suit
Jul 2 2007 // A federal judge in mid-June sided with the state of Okla-homa on several legal challenges brought by the poultry industry in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. After two days...
Industry Challenges
Jul 2 2007 // It’s great to have peripheral ways of generating business and revenue, but stay focused on your core. Focus key to surviving insurance industry challenges The “big problems” facing insurance agents and...
After fast start with workers’ comp, Albany sputters
Jul 2 2007 // The Assembly has had its own reasons for moving slowly, especially on insurance bills — its insurance committee lacked leadership. Despite the state having a new governor, The New York Legislature continues with its...
