Latest California Headlines

All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Executive And His Companies to Pay $1.8M to Settle California Harassment Suit

May 7 2020 // A former Northern California business executive and his companies will pay $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit by the state accusing him of sexually harassing a female employee, according to a newspaper report. California...

California Governor Announces Workers’ Comp Presumption for COVID-19

May 6 2020 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced that workers who contract COVID-19 while on the job may be eligible to receive workers’ compensation. The governor signed an executive order that creates a time-limited...

Topa in California Names Day Permanent President and CEO

May 6 2020 // Calabasas, Calif.-based Topa Insurance Group has named Michael Day president and CEO on a permanent basis. Day has been leading Topa Insurance Group on an interim basis since stepping in for the departing John Donahue, who...

California Lawsuit Alleges 2 Companies Inflated Gas Prices

May 6 2020 // California sued two multinational gasoline trading companies Monday, alleging they ran a scheme that jacked up prices at the pump from 2015 to late 2016. Democratic Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the companies took...

Analysts Tally Workers’ Comp Cost of Exposure to COVID-19

May 5 2020 // While the potential cost of relaxing a tenet of the workers’ compensation system to deal with extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19 could top $50 billion, it’s more likely to be one-fifth of that, an analyst...

California Attorney General and City Attorneys Sue Uber, Lyft for Worker Misclassification

May 5 2020 // California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and the city attorneys of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, on Tuesday sued Uber and Lyft for misclassifying their drivers as independent contractors in violation of the...

Mercury General in California Reports 1Q Loss of $139M

May 5 2020 // Mercury General Corp. this week reported a first-quarter loss of $139.2 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier. The Los Angeles-based company said it had a loss of $2.51 per share. Earnings,...

California Issues Cease And Desist over Illegal Extended Warranties

May 4 2020 // The California Department of Insurance issued a cease and desist order on Omega Vehicle Services LLC, doing business as Delta Auto Protect, and its controlling manager, Charles Seruya, for allegedly selling illegal vehicle...

PG&E Purging Most of Board in Fallout From Bankruptcy, California Wildfires

May 4 2020 // PG&E Corp. will sweep out three quarters of its board of directors to start with a mostly clean slate when it emerges from a bankruptcy case triggered by deadly wildfires ignited in Northern California by the...

$1.4M to Mother of Homeless Man Killed by Police in California

Apr 29 2020 // A San Francisco Bay Area city has agreed to pay $1.4 million to the mother of a homeless man killed by police after they found him in a residential neighborhood with a gun in his hand. The April 23 vote by the Oakland City...

Lippa Insurance Services in California Names Sage Vice President

Apr 29 2020 // Lippa Insurance Services Inc. in Laguna Niguel, Calif., has named Andrew Sage as vice president of accounting. Sage is a third-generation family member to join the firm. He was previously worked with RJS Insurance...

California Earthquake Authority Named Administrator of Wildfire Fund

Apr 29 2020 // The California Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the Wildfire Fund, has formally named the California Earthquake Authority the fund’s administrator. The Wildfire Fund was established by the California...

The Doctors Co. in California Names Spadacenta Claims Executive

Apr 28 2020 // The Doctors Co., based in Napa, Calif., has named Marco Spadacenta senior vice president of claims. Spadacenta oversees the claims function nationally of the admitted medical professional liability unit, reporting to...

Surplus Lines Pioneer Hall Remembered as Well-Respected Leader

Apr 24 2020 // Michael J. Hall, founder of M.J. Hall & Co. and Golden Bear Insurance Co., was a well-respected leader in the admitted and surplus lines industries. Hall, who was 81, died on Tuesday. He established himself early on as...

California Workers’ Comp Report Shows Written Premium Down 6% in 2019

Apr 23 2020 // Workers’ compensation written premium in California for calendar year 2019 was 6% below that for calendar year 2018, according to an update on California statewide insurer experience valued as of Dec.31, 2019. The...

More States Making Plans to Lift Coronavirus Restrictions

Apr 23 2020 // More states in the U.S. South and Midwest signaled readiness on Wednesday to reopen their economies in hopes the worst of the coronavirus pandemic had passed, but California’s governor held firm to sweeping...

PG&E’s Bankruptcy Plan Heads Toward Approval in California

Apr 22 2020 // California regulators are being advised to approve Pacific Gas & Electric’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy with new controls designed to prevent a recurrence of the utility’s past bad behavior that has...

Families Sue Helicopter Company in California in Kobe Bryant Crash

Apr 22 2020 // Family members of four passengers killed in a helicopter crash with Kobe Bryant and his daughter have joined the NBA star’s widow in filing wrongful death lawsuits against the companies that owned and operated the...

Alera Group Acquires Barkley Risk Management & Insurance in California

Apr 21 2020 // Alera Group has acquired Barkley Risk Management & Insurance in California. The Barkley team will continue serving clients in their existing roles. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Barkley serves clients...

California Workers’ Comp Bureau to Restrict COVID-19 Experience, Payroll in Rating

Apr 21 2020 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California has submitted a special regulatory filing to the California Insurance Commissioner with proposals to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The WCIRB governing...