Latest Massachusetts Headlines

All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Mass. Man Sent to Jail for Workers’ Comp Fraud

Mar 26 2004 // A Hyannis, Massachusetts man has been found guilty and sentenced to jail for working as a laborer while collecting $7,000 in workers’ compensation benefits, Attorney General Tom Reilly announced. Mark Gomes, 39, of...

Mass. Adds Its OK to St. Paul-Travelers Merger

Mar 23 2004 // The proposed Travelers-St. Paul merger has received another endorsement as the Massachusetts Division of Insurance has given its approval to the acquisition by St. Paul of Premier Insurance Co., the Massachusetts stock...

Mass. Eyes Fla.-style Hurricane Fund to Ease Coastal Homeowners Crisis

Mar 22 2004 // Massachusetts officials, searching for ways to ease a homeowners insurance availability crisis on Cape Cod and other coastal areas, are researching how Florida dealt with its insurance difficulties 10 years ago when it set...

Workers in Mass., Pa. Fare Better After Injuries Than In Other States

Mar 22 2004 // Injured workers located in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania report more satisfactory outcomes than their counter parts in Texas, according to a study by the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI). The study,...

Mass. Credit Score Vote Disappoints PCI

Mar 19 2004 // The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America expressed disappointment over the decision of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Insurance to approve SB 2093. The bill would place a total ban on the use of...

Mass. Agents, Bar Compete with Lawyers Programs

Mar 18 2004 // Three months after the insurer and the Massachusetts Bar Association (MBA) parted ways, Westport Insurance Corp. has signed on with the state’s agent association to sell its lawyers’ professional liability...

AIA Opposes Mass. Bill on Credit Scoring

Mar 10 2004 // The American Insurance Association joined the PCI (See IJ Website Mar.9) in announcing its opposition to a Massachusetts bill (SB 2093) that would ban the use of credit-based insurance scores. The AIA said passage of the...

PCI Says Proposed Credit Score Ban Would Further Disrupt Mass. Market

Mar 9 2004 // The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America notes that Senate Bill 2093, which seeks a total ban on the use of credit-based insurance scores in auto and homeowners insurance ratemaking, would create even more...

Tort Reformers Look to Score in States after Washington Strikes Out

Mar 8 2004 // Last fall at a University of Virginia Law School forum on tort reform, some of the nation’s top tort experts agreed there were no easy answers on how to solve the nation’s longstanding love-hate relationship...

PCI, AIA Oppose Mass. Bill Requiring Insurers to Report to Tax Authorities

Mar 4 2004 // The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the American Insurance Association have both gone on record as opposed to a bill being considered by the Joint Committee on Taxation that places insurers in the...

Allmerica CEO: Mass. Personal Lines Capacity Woes Could Spread to Other Lines

Mar 4 2004 // Massachusetts has a capacity crisis not just an auto market crisis which is being played out most vividly on Cape Cod and could spill over into other lines if more and bigger companies are not attracted to the state,...

Mass. Auto Insurer Hanover Sues Over High Risk ‘Conspiracy’

Mar 3 2004 // The lengths to which an auto insurer in Massachusetts may go to circumvent the state’s unique high risk pool has been brought to light by an unusual lawsuit filed by one insurer against one of its...

Mass. Officials Respond To Cape Homeowners Crisis

Feb 26 2004 // The Massachusetts Division of Insurance has responded to concerns over the lack of homeowners insurance in coastal areas in the state. The Division confirmed that the Andover Group insurers, Cambridge Mutual Fire and...

Massachusetts Agents Cite Crisis in Homeowners Market on Cape Cod

Feb 24 2004 // The lack of availability of insurance for properties in Cape Cod coastal communities and in some Massachusetts urban areas has reached “crisis” proportion in the opinion of the state’s insurance agents,...

Mass. Man Pleads Guilty

Feb 23 2004 // According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston, Anthony Snow of Dorchester, Mass., entered a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Patti B. Saris to charges involving six counts of mail fraud and three counts of...

RESIDUAL MARKETS A BURDEN:

Feb 23 2004 // A new report by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) shows that residual market plans for private passenger auto insurance continue to result in significant losses for insurance companies. All states...

Residual Markets Continue to Burden Auto Insurers

Feb 9 2004 // A new report by the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) shows that residual market plans for private passenger auto insurance continue to result in significant losses for insurance companies. But one...

In Mass., Good Drivers Lose Discounts While Employer Groups Retain Theirs

Feb 9 2004 // Only three of the 19 companies still writing private passenger auto insurance in Massachusetts will offer discounts to safe drivers this year. Five years ago, there were one-third more writers of the coverage and most of...

MEADOWBROOK DEALS OUT $4 MILLION:

Feb 9 2004 // Meadowbrook/TPA Associates, a Massachusetts’ third party administrator of self-insured workers’ compensation programs, is distributing $4,023,874 in dividends to 520 businesses who are members of the...

California Workers’ Comp Costs Per Claim Continue Rapid Growth

Feb 9 2004 // California workers’ compensation costs per claim in California continue to grow rapidly, increasing 15 percent from 2000 through 2001 (as of 2002) and are accelerating, according to a new study from the Cambridge,...