Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Takes 26.5% of ‘Roadchecked’ Commercial Vehicles Out of Service
Jun 24 2011 // During the recent 72-hour Roadcheck 2011 program, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other Texas law enforcement agencies inspected 7,993 commercial vehicles. Of the vehicles inspected, 26.5 percent were placed out...
Texas Senate Passes Windstorm Bill
Jun 23 2011 // The Texas Senate has passed a bill intended to improve the state’s coastal windstorm insurance agency, clarifying the claims process and increasing transparency at the agency. The measure to reform the Texas...
Medicus Insurance Lowers Rates in 6 States
Jun 21 2011 // Austin, Texas-based medical professional liability insurance carriers Medicus Insurance Co., has lowered its base rates for physicians and medical professionals in Arizona, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Virginia. Medicus...
Wildfires Burn 3 Dozen Homes Across Texas
Jun 21 2011 // Firefighters in Texas are attempting to contain more wildfires after several blazes broke out across the state and destroyed more than three dozen homes. Hundreds of people were told to evacuate June 19 after fires swept...
Texas Governor Vetoes Texting While Driving Bill
Jun 20 2011 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry vetoed 23 bills on June 17, including legislation that would have outlawed sending or reading text messages while driving. Lawmakers approved the texting ban last month, but Perry called it an...
Rio Grande Valley Insurance Broker Sentenced to Prison
Jun 20 2011 // A 47-year-old Harlingen, Texas, man was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for a scheme to defraud a Rio Grande Valley hospital of more than $3.8 million by selling it nonexistent and altered insurance...
Federal Appeals Court Reverses Lower Court on Texas ‘Ambulance Chasing’ Bill
Jun 20 2011 // A federal court of appeals has overturned a lower court’s ruling that an “anti-ambulance chasing” bill in Texas is unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that U.S....
Business Moves
Jun 20 2011 // William Gammon, Higginbotham & Associates Texas-based independent insurance agencies William Gammon Insurance and Higginbotham & Associates merged. The combined company has more than 500 professionals providing...
‘Loser Pay’ Comes to Texas
Jun 20 2011 // Texas Gov. Rick Perry has signed legislation into law commonly referred to as the “Loser Pay Rule.” Immediately, the national press jumped on this new statute as an example of a major step forward in tort...
Use of Credit-based Insurance Scores in Texas Upheld
Jun 20 2011 // Texas law permits an insurer to use race-neutral factors in credit scoring to price personal lines of insurance. That’s the conclusion of the Texas Supreme Court, which considered a certified question from the Ninth...
People
Jun 20 2011 // Austin, Texas-based Texas Medical Liability Trust (TMLT) announced that Charles R. (Chip) Ott Jr. will assume leadership of TMLT as president and CEO in late July. He will replace current President and CEO Bob R. Fields,...
Average Long Term Care Liability Claim Rising: Aon Study
Jun 17 2011 // Long term care liability costs are rising because the average claim size is increasing even as claim frequency declines. There has been a four percent increase in the average claim size, according to research by Aon Risk...
Texas House Approves Windstorm Insurance Changes
Jun 17 2011 // The Texas House approved widespread changes on June 15 to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, the organization that insures people who live along the coast. The House passed the bill on a 99-41 vote. The bill must...
Texas Workers’ Comp May Enforcements Bring More than $70K in Fines
Jun 15 2011 // Final disciplinary actions taken by the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (TDI-DWC) for May 2011 resulted in more than $70,000 in fines. Division of Workers’ Compensation final...
Texas Woman Sentenced in Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Jun 15 2011 // Texas Mutual Insurance Company reported that a Travis County district court sentenced Ellynn A. Ogilvie of Houston to five years of probation, 450 community service hours and a $2,000 fine for workers’ compensation...
Texas Agents to Lend Helping Hand to Houston’s KIPP PEACE Campus
Jun 14 2011 // The Independent Insurance Agents of Texas (IIAT) and its Trusted Choice agencies, insurance representatives and other insurance professionals from across the state will gather in Houston, June 22-24, for IIAT’s 114th...
Rio Grande Valley Insurance Broker Sentenced to Prison
Jun 13 2011 // A 47-year-old Harlingen man was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for a scheme to defraud a Rio Grande Valley hospital of more than $3.8 million by selling it nonexistent and altered insurance...
Federal Appeals Court Reverses Ruling on Texas ‘Ambulance Chasing’ Bill
Jun 10 2011 // A federal court of appeals has overturned a lower court’s ruling that an “anti-ambulance chasing” bill in Texas is unconstitutional. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit determined that U.S....
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Purchases Reinsurance
Jun 10 2011 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) announced it has purchased $636 million in reinsurance protection. The policy will cover losses that exceed the $1.6 billion in funds estimated to be available from the...
The Woodlands Financial Group Adds 4 Branch Locations
Jun 9 2011 // Texas-based The Woodlands Financial Group announced it is continuing to expand operations across the country with the opening of four new branch locations. Noel Sanchez has opened a new branch in San Mateo, Calif. Sanchez...
