Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mass. Commissioner Reverses Plan to Drop Auto Surcharge Appeals Board
Mar 19 2009 // Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes has reversed her plan to scrap the Bay State’s Board of Appeals — part of the long-standing system through which drivers could appeal insurance surcharges they...
Massachusetts Construction Jobs Drying up
Mar 17 2009 // The number of construction jobs in Massachusetts has fallen by about 10,000 positions in the past three months to the lowest level in a decade. The Boston Globe, citing state employment data, reports Monday that there are...
Massachusetts’ Attorney General Urges Insurance Chief to Keep Appeals
Mar 16 2009 // Attorney General Martha Coakley wants the state’s insurance division to maintain the appeals process for drivers who believe they were wrongly assessed surcharges for accidents. The Board of Appeals is slated to stop...
Massachusetts Registry, AAA May Join on License Renewals
Mar 13 2009 // The Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles is close to an agreement with AAA that gives the auto club’s 2.3 million members a chance to renew licenses and vehicle registrations at no extra charge — even on...
Massachusetts Court Nixes Suit against Youth Soccer Groups
Mar 11 2009 // The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that a boy whose leg was broken when a goal post flipped over cannot sue nonprofit youth soccer associations for negligence. Dustin Welch was hurt on April 10, 1998, when a goal...
Journalists, Bloggers Watching Libel Case Involving Staples’ E-mail
Mar 10 2009 // For decades, U.S. journalists have been guided by what most considered an absolute defense to libel lawsuits: If a news report is true, it can’t be libelous. But a recent decision by a federal appeals court in Boston...
Mass. AG Questions Insurer’s High Risk Insurance Auto Rates
Mar 6 2009 // Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley wants a public hearing to review the auto insurance rates of a new company entering the market in Massachusetts. Occidental Fire and Casualty Insurance Co. of North Carolina is...
Mass. Man Pleads Not Guilty to Broken Tooth Insurance Charges
Mar 6 2009 // A Massachusetts man has pleaded not guilty to pocketing $36,000 in insurance payments by filing 21 fake injury claims for the same broken tooth. Tod Schaffer of Brookline was released on personal recognizance after...
Mass. Man Faces Insurance Fraud Charges Over Broken Tooth Claims
Mar 4 2009 // A Massachusetts man has been arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court in connection with allegedly submitting false dental injury reports to insurance companies in order to receive cash settlements. Tod Schaffer, 42, is charged...
Ray Named Treasurer at Rogers & Gray in Massachusetts
Feb 27 2009 // Robert J. Ray has been appointed vice president and treasurer of Rogers & Gray Insurance Agency in Massachusetts. Ray joined the agency in July 2008 as chief financial officer. He previously worked at Hub...
New Jersey Company Settles Massachusetts Lawsuit for $239K
Feb 26 2009 // A New Jersey insurance company agreed Tuesday to pay just over $239,000 to settle allegations that it offered improper incentives to a Boston-based brokerage firm. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s...
Cefaioli Joins TD Insurance in Massachusetts
Feb 26 2009 // Terese Cefaioli has joined the CORE Business Group at TD Insurance, Inc. in Methuen, Massachusetts, where she will lead the group’s Life Science and Technology Practice throughout the region, including New England...
Officials: Woman Killed in Massachusetts House Explosion
Feb 23 2009 // An explosion possibly caused by a gas leak leveled a house in Somerset, Massachusetts on Thursday evening — killing a woman and her dog and damaging at least two nearby houses, officials said. Neighbors said they...
Massachusetts Ex-Regulator Joins Narragansett Bay Insurance
Feb 12 2009 // Julianne Bowler, former commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance, has joined Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based Narragansett Bay Insurance Co. as a senior consultant for corporate and strategic...
Massachusetts Doctors’ Group Wants to Rein in Liability Exposures
Feb 4 2009 // An advocacy group for Massachusetts doctors said it will offer a bill in the state legislature to eliminate the expanded liability of physicians which was created by two recent court decisions. The Massachusetts Medical...
Eastern Insurance Acquires Rosemary Walker Agency in Massachusetts
Jan 29 2009 // Natick, Massachusetts-based Eastern Insurance Group has acquired Rosemary Walker Insurance Agency in Danvers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Rosemary Walker was founded in 1970. Eastern said the acquisition will...
Massachusetts Man Gets 9 Months for Insurance Fraud
Jan 28 2009 // A man authorities say participated in a series of staged auto accidents in Lawrence in an effort to defraud insurers has been sentenced to nine months in prison. Leo Lopez was also also ordered Monday to pay nearly $56,000...
Coffey Joins Pinnacle Financial Group in Massachusetts
Jan 22 2009 // Southborough, Massachusetts-based insurance consulting firm Pinnacle Financial Group has named Kevin R. Coffey as director of operations. Coffey will oversee all of Pinnacle’s operations, including its finance and...
Mass. Court: Professional Liability Policy Excludes Document Theft
Jan 11 2009 // A document management company that allowed a client’s sensitive documents to be taken is not covered by a professional liability policy with an intellectual property exclusion, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial...
Massachusetts Agents Want Regulator to Rein in Progressive
Jan 11 2009 // It’s the second time in the seven months Progressive has been selling personal auto insurance online that the company has become a target of agents’ ire. A trade group for Massachusetts insurance agents has...
