Insurance

  • January 30, 2025

    Judge Stays NY Diocese Abuse Suits, Citing 2nd Circ. Ruling

    A New York bankruptcy judge on Thursday agreed to stay sexual abuse claims filed under the state's Child Victims Act against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, deciding that a Second Circuit ruling in 2022 makes clear that legal actions naming debtors as defendants are barred by bankruptcy's automatic stay.

  • January 30, 2025

    Mass. High Court Backs Insurers' Lost Resale Value Exclusion

    Language in Massachusetts auto insurance policies limiting coverage to "tangible losses" lets MAPFRE Insurance subsidiary Commerce and other companies off the hook for claims based on lost resale value after an accident, the state's highest court said on Thursday.

  • January 29, 2025

    Allstate Says Houston Referral Site Ran Kickback Scheme

    Allstate Insurance told a Texas federal court that a group of clinics ran a kickback scheme with a medical referral website, saying in a Wednesday complaint the website funneled car crash victims to clinics that overcharged in exchange for payouts.

  • January 29, 2025

    Senate Banking Committee Forms NFIP Working Group

    With the National Flood Insurance Program's authorization set to expire in March, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking has formed a working group to reform the program and work toward long-term reauthorization, a press release from committee chairman and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott said.

  • January 29, 2025

    Lab Co-Owner Gets 9 Years For $369M COVID Testing Scheme

    The co-owner of a California medical laboratory was sentenced to nine years in prison after being accused of conspiring to defraud Medicare and private insurers out of $369 million by submitting claims for medically unnecessary tests during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.

  • January 29, 2025

    Lloyd's Can't Yet Arbitrate $5M Settlement Coverage Dispute

    A New Jersey federal court rejected a bid Wednesday from certain Lloyd's of London underwriters to arbitrate a man's demand that they cover a $5 million settlement he won against a police department they insured, though it stopped short of saying whether the parties must actually go to arbitration.

  • January 29, 2025

    Fla. Judge OKs Settlement In Energy Drink Co. Bankruptcy

    A Florida federal bankruptcy judge on Wednesday approved a $3 million settlement in the bankruptcy case of Vital Pharmaceuticals Inc., the company that produces Bang Energy drinks, but declined to seal an agreement with an insurer over the costs of litigation in a Monster Energy Co. lawsuit.

  • January 29, 2025

    NY Archdiocese Wants Abuse Coverage Row Segmented

    The Archdiocese of New York urged a New York state court to analyze coverage in phases for over 1,300 sex abuse lawsuits it and its affiliated entities face, arguing that because the "vast majority" of the underlying lawsuits are still being litigated, assessing coverage prematurely could be "highly prejudicial."

  • January 29, 2025

    Ex-Allied World Executive Gets Prison, Must Repay $1.2M

    A former executive and claims handler at Allied World Insurance Co. will serve 20 months in prison and must repay $1.2 million he admitted to scamming from the company for phony construction work and kickbacks from vendors, federal prosecutors in Connecticut announced Tuesday.

  • January 29, 2025

    Workers Needed To Initiate Arbitration, Calif. Panel Says

    A group of workers needed to initiate arbitration in their proposed class action claiming an insurance company misclassified them as exempt employees after a trial court sent their claims out of court, a California state appellate panel ruled, flipping the lower court's decision reviving the suit.

  • January 28, 2025

    Cigna Can't Escape Fight Over Prosthetic Coverage In Maine

    Cigna must continue facing an Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit by a man who was denied coverage of his prosthetic device, with a Maine federal judge saying she can't rule on the insurer's dismissal motion until she knows what entity funds the man's healthcare plan.

  • January 28, 2025

    Gunmaker Must Face AIG Units' Breach Counterclaims

    Firearms-maker Colt's Manufacturing Co. LLC can not dodge claims that it breached a contract by failing to pay the first $250,000 in annual legal expenses it incurred while defending against litigation brought by the city of Gary, Indiana, a Connecticut federal court ruled.

  • January 28, 2025

    SoCal Edison Faces More Suits Over Eaton Blaze

    At least two more lawsuits were filed in California state court against Southern California Edison, alleging the investor-owned public utility is responsible for sparking the devastating Eaton Fire that began Jan. 7 and destroyed most of Altadena, California, killing at least 17 people.

  • January 28, 2025

    Insurer Says Mich. Sports Complex Not Covered In Injury Suit

    A Berkley unit said it has no duty to defend or indemnify a Michigan sports complex in an underlying suit over a girl's injury during varsity soccer tryouts, telling a federal court Tuesday that a "participants" exclusion in its commercial general liability policy bars coverage.

  • January 28, 2025

    Texas Panel Wipes Baylor's $12M COVID Insurance Verdict

    An appellate panel wiped a $12 million jury verdict in favor of Baylor College of Medicine on Tuesday, writing that it was joining "the vast majority of courts" in ruling that the university's insurance policy didn't cover COVID-19 losses.

  • January 28, 2025

    Calif. Bill Targets Oil Cos. For Climate Disaster Costs

    A Democratic lawmaker in California has introduced a bill aimed at improving insurance affordability in the state by allowing insurers and victims of natural disasters to pursue action against oil and gas companies for their role in fueling the climate crisis.

  • January 27, 2025

    Anadarko Prevails In La. Kickback Defense Coverage Suit

    An environmental remediation company should defend and indemnify Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in a decade-old Louisiana kickback lawsuit, a Texas federal court judge has ruled.

  • January 27, 2025

    UnitedHealth Raises Cyberattack Estimate To 190M Individuals

    A debilitating cyberattack last year that sabotaged vital billing and prescribing services operated by a UnitedHealth Group unit affected personal information belonging to roughly 190 million individuals, the health insurer disclosed Friday, nearly doubling its previous estimate of the scope of the incident. 

  • January 27, 2025

    Allstate Beats Plan Participants' $70M Poor-Performance Suit

    An Illinois federal judge handed Allstate a pretrial win Monday over retirement plan participants' claim that the insurer cost them nearly $70 million by holding on to poor-performing funds, saying the plaintiffs' "apples and oranges" comparisons will not sway a jury in their favor.

  • January 27, 2025

    No Coverage For Worker 'Crushed' In Hole, Insurer Says

    A construction contractor's commercial general liability insurer told a Louisiana federal court it owes no coverage for a wrongful death lawsuit that, according to the insurer, alleges a worker was "crushed in a hole."

  • January 27, 2025

    AIG Unit Says No Coverage For McKinsey Opioid Suits, Deals

    Management consulting giant McKinsey & Co. shouldn't have any coverage for more than 250 opioid lawsuits and roughly $1.3 billion it's paid in corresponding settlement payments to date, an AIG unit told a Delaware state court, arguing the underlying claimants have accused McKinsey of uninsurable "deliberate misconduct and greed."

  • January 27, 2025

    Pa. Social Club Can't Revive COVID-19 Coverage Suit

    The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Monday backed the dismissal of a Scranton social club's suit seeking to recover pandemic-related losses, citing the state high court's landmark ruling last year that physical loss or damage requires tangible alteration to property.

  • January 27, 2025

    J&J Talc Unit's $9B Ch. 11 Plan Draws Slew Of Objections

    The U.S. Trustee's Office and lawyers representing talc claimants have urged a Texas bankruptcy judge to reject a Johnson & Johnson spinoff's $9 billion plan to settle thousands of cancer claims through Chapter 11, arguing the proposed reorganization must fail because the bankruptcy case was filed in bad faith.

  • January 27, 2025

    Zurich Owes Solar Co. $12.2M For Rain Damage, Judge Says

    Zurich American Insurance Co. owes over $12.2 million to a solar energy company for damages from heavy rainstorms at a 2,000-acre solar farm, a Georgia federal court ruled after a jury found the insurer liable for additional costs related to the rain events.

  • January 27, 2025

    Insurance Group Of The Year: Sullivan & Cromwell

    Sullivan & Cromwell LLP's insurance coverage group helped Great Lakes Insurance SE secure a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a New York choice-of-law provision in a maritime policy was enforceable, in a case that headlined a banner year for the group — and solidified its place among the 2024 Law360 Insurance Groups of the Year.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Navigating The Bankruptcy Terrain After Purdue Pharma

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    The U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in Harrington v. Purdue Pharma is having a significant impact on bankruptcies, with recent cases addressing nonconsensual third-party releases and opt-out mechanisms, and highlighting strategies practitioners can employ to avoid running afoul of the decision, say Brett Axelrod and Agostino Zammiello at Fox Rothschild.

  • An Update On Legal Issues In The Drone Market

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    Marialuisa Gallozzi and Alex Slawson at Covington examine recent developments in the legal issues surrounding the growing drone market, including possible First Amendment protections, Fourth Amendment surveillance, and litigation involving criminal and civil penalties, evidentiary pursuits, and insurance.

  • Key Insurance Implications Of Hawaii's Historic GHG Ruling

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    In Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance, the Hawaii Supreme Court became the first state court to classify greenhouse gasses as pollutants barred from insurance coverage, a ruling likely to be afforded great weight by courts across the country, say Scott Seaman and Gar Lauerman at Hinshaw & Culbertson.

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • Opinion

    To Shrink Jury Awards, Address Preventable Medical Errors

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    While some health industry leaders complain about large malpractice awards — like the recent $45 million verdict in Hernandez v. Temple University Hospital — these payouts are only a symptom of the underlying problem: an epidemic of preventable medical errors, says Eric Weitz at The Weitz Firm.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Defining All-Risk: Despite $30M Loss, Loose Bolt Not 'Damage'

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    A Massachusetts federal court’s recent ruling in AMAG Pharmaceuticals v. American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Co., denying coverage for $30 million in damages claimed when a loose bolt caused an air leak, highlights an ongoing debate over the definition of “direct physical loss or damage,” say Josh Tumen and Paul Ferland at Cozen O'Connor.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Sublimit And Policy Interpretation Lessons From Amtrak Case

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    The recently settled dispute between Amtrak and its insurers over sublimit coverage illustrates that parties with unclear manuscript policies may wish to avoid litigation in favor of settlement — as the New York federal court declined to decide the case by applying prior term interpretations, says Laura Maletta at Chartwell Law.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Mental Health Parity Rules: Tips For Plans And Issuers

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    Following federal agencies' release of final mental health parity rules, plan sponsors and health insurance issuers should develop protocols for preparing compliant nonquantitative treatment limitation comparative analyses, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

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