Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Coakley Urges Massachusetts Regulators to Reject Rate Hike by Progressive
Feb 11 2011 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley is urging state insurance regulators to reject Progressive’s request for a 23.5 percent rate hike for commercial auto coverage. Coakley’s office says...
Business Moves
Feb 7 2011 // Breckenridge, REcentis New York-based wholesaler Breckenridge IS has acquired a majority interest in REcentis Intermediaries, a specialty reinsurance broker with offices in California and Australia. Terms of the deal were...
Massachusetts Allows for Terrorism Exclusion in Commercial Insurance
Feb 7 2011 // Commercial property insurers in Massachusetts will be allowed to exclude terrorism coverage from commercial fire insurance policies under a new law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick. The law modifies the standard fire insurance...
Massachusetts Attorney General Wants Tougher Workers’ Comp Penalties
Feb 7 2011 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wants more severe criminal penalties for businesses that go without workers’ compensation insurance for their employees. A bill filed earlier this month by...
New Snow Liability for Massachusetts Property Owners
Feb 7 2011 // “Is it true that if I don’t shovel the snow then I can’t be sued?” As inevitably as the seasons change, this is a question that comes up every fall. For many years, my answer was both lengthy and...
The Mood On Main Street
Feb 7 2011 // Has the recession changed how small business feels about insurance? The recession has taken its toll on contractors, restaurants, retailers, small manufacturers and other Main Street business around the country and most of...
Massachusetts Attorney General Wants Tougher Workers’ Comp Penalties
Jan 31 2011 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wants more severe criminal penalties for businesses that go without workers’ compensation insurance for their employees. A bill filed earlier this month by...
Massachusetts Allows for Terrorism Exclusion in Commercial Insurance
Jan 28 2011 // Commercial property insurers in Massachusetts will be allowed to exclude terrorism coverage from commercial fire insurance policies under a new law signed by Gov. Deval Patrick. The law modifies the standard fire insurance...
Massachusetts Repair Shop Owner Arraigned for Bilking Insurers
Jan 25 2011 // A Massachusetts man who allegedly collected over $28,000 in fraudulent insurance claims for work performed at his automotive and glass companies has been arraigned on fraud and larceny charges, according to the...
Massachusetts Agent Pleads Guilty to Stealing $43K in Premiums
Jan 24 2011 // A Massachusetts insurance agent has pleaded guilty to pocketing $43,000 in premiums. Richard Coscia Jr., of Winthrop, an employee of Coscia Insurance Agency, pleaded guilty to over two dozen charges, including insurance...
United Approved in Massachusetts
Jan 21 2011 // United Property & Casualty Insurance has been approved to begin writing homeowners and other P/C coverage in Massachusetts. The company is a subsidiary of Florida-based United Insurance Holdings Corp. It is the third...
PURE to Begin Writing in Massachusetts
Jan 19 2011 // Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) said it is now offering coverage for high-value homes in Massachusetts. PURE — which is structured as a policyholder-owned firm — already writes coverage in a number of...
Report: Massachusetts Blast Not the Fault of Gas Company
Dec 31 2010 // State fire investigators have concluded that a fatal explosion at a condominium project last summer was not the result of the delivery of odorless propane gas from a Westfield, Mass., distributor, as initially thought. The...
Massachusetts Woman Gets Prison in Glass-Eating Scheme
Dec 29 2010 // A Massachusetts woman has been sentenced to more than four years in prison after admitting that she and her husband intentionally ate glass particles, then submitted false insurance claims. Mary Evano was also ordered last...
Massachusetts Man Pleads Guilty in Fatal Staged Accident
Dec 28 2010 // A former Lawrence, Massachusetts man who participated in a staged car crash that took the life of a 65-year-old grandmother has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter. Prosecutors say...
$81M Punitive Damages in Massachusetts Cigarette Case
Dec 21 2010 // A tobacco company that had tried to hook black children on cigarettes was ordered to pay $81 million in punitive damages to the estate and son of a Boston woman who started smoking at age 13, in what an attorney said is...
Massachusetts Couple Gets $2M in Malpractice Suit
Dec 17 2010 // A jury has ruled in favor of a Massachusetts couple and awarded them nearly $2 million in a medical malpractice suit they brought against St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester. Laura Ginisi claimed in the suit that...
Massachusetts Jury Orders Tobacco Firm to Pay $71 Million to Family
Dec 15 2010 // A jury Tuesday ordered U.S. cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. to pay damages to a dead smoker’s family for allegedly enticing the woman and other black children with free cigarettes given out decades ago. Evans vs...
Senators Urge Bipartisan State Healthcare Waiver
Nov 19 2010 // A Democrat and a Republican teamed up in the U.S. Senate Thursday to offer legislation that would give states the flexibility to implement their own healthcare approaches when the federal overhaul goes into full effect in...
Massachusetts Falls Short Fighting Drunken Driving
Nov 17 2010 // The National Transportation Safety Board is faulting Massachusetts for not doing enough to combat what they call “hardcore” drunken drivers. The NTSB said Massachusetts is among 10 states in the country that...
