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Insurance
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January 30, 2025
Ex-Doc Wants Insurer's Defense Against Sex Misconduct Suits
A former Ohio doctor facing civil suits after being indicted for sexual misconduct including rape during medical exams told an Ohio federal court that his insurer can't cancel his coverage and must keep defending him regardless of prior alleged misconduct, because he wasn't required to report it.
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January 30, 2025
Insurer Says It Owes No Coverage For Boys Home Abuse
An insurer told a Washington federal judge Thursday that it should be off the hook for coverage in an underlying case involving sexual abuse claims at home for boys because the alleged harm occurred years before the first policy was issued to the group home operator.
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January 30, 2025
Symetra To Pay $2M To End Structured Settlement Suit
Insurance conglomerate Symetra has agreed to pay more than $2.1 million to settle a proposed class action in Washington federal court accusing two Symetra entities of luring roughly 2,000 recipients of personal injury settlements into selling their future stream of payments for a heavily discounted lump sum.
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January 30, 2025
Ga. Businesses 'Over The Moon' With Tort Reform Proposals
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp unveiled a long-awaited tort reform package Thursday that, if passed, would limit businesses' premises liability, limit plaintiffs' attorneys' rhetoric around damages and require increased disclosures for third-party litigation funding, among a slew of other proposals.
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January 30, 2025
SEC Eyes Pretrial Win On $57M Fraud After Lindberg Plea Deal
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a North Carolina federal judge to give it a pretrial win on its fraud claims against convicted former insurance mogul Greg Lindberg and his investment adviser firm, arguing multiple convictions in parallel criminal cases against Lindberg and others are a "straightforward" indicator of his liability.
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January 30, 2025
Split 5th Circ. Clears Insurers In $2.7M Flood Row
A split Fifth Circuit panel upheld a ruling finding that a general contractor and others cannot recover $2.7 million from insurers for water damage, because the flood deductible in the applicable builder's risk policy exceeded the claimed losses.
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January 30, 2025
Crypto Cos. Seek $6.3M From Travelers Over Building Fire
A pair of cryptocurrency mining companies accused two Travelers units of exacerbating their fire loss, telling a Michigan federal court that they negligently allowed individuals to steal their mining machines and hired a debris removal contractor that caused the property to collapse, seeking more than $6.3 million in damages.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Expert Analysis
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Firms Must Offer A Trifecta Of Services In Post-Chevron World
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision overturning Chevron deference, law firms will need to integrate litigation, lobbying and communications functions to keep up with the ramifications of the ruling and provide adequate counsel quickly, says Neil Hare at Dentons.
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What We Know From Early Cyberinsurance Rulings
Recent cyber disruption incidents, like the Crowdstrike outage and the CDK Global cyberattack this summer, highlight the necessity of understanding legal interpretations of cyberinsurance coverage — an area in which there has been little litigation thus far, say Peter Halprin and Rebecca Schwarz at Haynes Boone.
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5 Tips To Succeed In A Master Of Laws Program And Beyond
As lawyers and recent law school graduates begin their Master of Laws coursework across the country, they should keep a few pointers in mind to get the most out of their programs and kick-start successful careers in their practice areas, says Kelley Miller at Reed Smith.
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Series
Being An Opera Singer Made Me A Better Lawyer
My journey from the stage to the courtroom has shown that the skills I honed as an opera singer – punctuality, memorization, creativity and more – have all played a vital role in my success as an attorney, says Gerard D'Emilio at GableGotwals.
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How Law Firms Can Avoid 'Collaboration Drag'
Law firm decision making can be stifled by “collaboration drag” — characterized by too many pointless meetings, too much peer feedback and too little dissent — but a few strategies can help stakeholders improve decision-making processes and build consensus, says Steve Groom at Miles Mediation.
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6 Considerations To Determine If A Cyber Incident Is Material
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent guidance on material cybersecurity incidents covers a range of ransomware scenarios, from a company paying a sum and regaining operations to recovering payment via cyberinsurance, but makes it clear that no single factor determines whether a cybersecurity incident is material, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.
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Opinion
Litigation Funding Disclosure Key To Open, Impartial Process
Blanket investor and funding agreement disclosures should be required in all civil cases where the investor has a financial interest in the outcome in order to address issues ranging from potential conflicts of interest to national security concerns, says Bob Goodlatte, former U.S. House Representative for Virginia.
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RealPage Suit Shows Growing Algorithm, AI Pricing Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of Justice's suit against RealPage for helping fix rental rates, filed last week, demonstrates how the use of algorithmic and artificial intelligence tools to assist with pricing decisions is drawing increasing scrutiny and action across government agencies, and specifically at the Federal Trade Commission and the DOJ, say Andre Geverola and Leah Harrell at Arnold & Porter.
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What NFL Draft Picks Have In Common With Lateral Law Hires
Nearly half of law firm lateral hires leave within a few years — a failure rate that is strikingly similar to the performance of NFL quarterbacks drafted in the first round — in part because evaluators focus too heavily on quantifiable metrics and not enough on a prospect's character traits, says Howard Rosenberg at Baretz+Brunelle.
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Replacing The Stigma Of Menopause With Law Firm Support
A large proportion of the workforce is forced to pull the brakes on their career aspirations because of the taboo surrounding menopause and a lack of consistent support, but law firms can initiate the cultural shift needed by formulating thoughtful workplace policies, says Barbara Hamilton-Bruce at Simmons & Simmons.
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Planning Law Firm Content Calendars: What, When, Where
During the slower month of August, law firms should begin working on their 2025 content calendars, planning out a content creation and distribution framework that aligns with the firm’s objectives and maintains audience engagement throughout the year, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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Insuring Lender's Baseball Bet Leads To Major League Dispute
In RockFence v. Lloyd's, a California federal court seeks to define who qualifies as a professional baseball player for purposes of an insurance coverage payout, providing an illuminating case study of potential legal issues arising from baseball service loans, say Marshall Gilinsky and Seán McCabe at Anderson Kill.
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Notable Q2 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss the muted nature of the property and casualty insurance class action space in the second quarter of the year, with no large waves made in labor depreciation and total-loss vehicle class actions, but a new offensive theory emerging for insurance companies.
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Series
Playing Golf Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Golf can positively affect your personal and professional life well beyond the final putt, and it’s helped enrich my legal practice by improving my ability to build lasting relationships, study and apply the rules, face adversity with grace, and maintain my mental and physical well-being, says Adam Kelly at Venable.
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Law Firms Should Move From Reactive To Proactive Marketing
Most law firm marketing and business development teams operate in silos, leading to an ad hoc, reactive approach, but shifting to a culture of proactive planning — beginning with comprehensive campaigns — can help firms effectively execute their broader business strategy, says Paul Manuele at PR Manuele Consulting.