Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Insurance Advisory Organization’s Pandemic Endorsement Approved by 6 States
Sep 22 2020 // AAIS (the American Association of Insurance Services) has received approval from six state insurance departments for its health-emergency policy endorsement, clarifying coverage and cancellation provisions in the wake of...
5th Circuit Reasserts Bad Faith Not Necessary to Win Interest Penalty Against Texas Insurers
Sep 22 2020 // A Houston plaintiff’s attorney defeated State Farm Lloyd’s for the fourth time on the same issue, this time coming away with a federal appellate court ruling that policyholders don’t have to prove that...
Judge Allows Great Smoky Mountains Wildfire Lawsuits to Move Forward
Sep 21 2020 // U.S. park officials have failed to show enough was done to keep the public updated as a deadly wildfire spread from Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2016, a judge ruled. The decision earlier this month by U.S....
First Charges Filed Under New York’s Cyber Reg Involve First American Data Leak
Sep 21 2020 // The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) filed cybersecurity charges against a title insurance provider for exposing millions of documents containing consumers’ personal information. The charges are...
Judge OKs $440K Settlement in South Dakota Forced Catheterization Suit
Sep 18 2020 // A federal judge has approved legal settlements totaling $440,000 for people in South Dakota who were subjected to forced catheterizations to check for drug use. U.S. District Judge Roberto Lange ruled in April that police...
House Democrats Ask Why Auto Safety Rules Are Delayed
Sep 17 2020 // Three senior Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday asked government auditors to study why U.S. auto safety regulators have failed to write dozens of new auto safety regulations. The delayed rules...
House Report Slams FAA, Boeing for ‘Horrific Culmination’ of Failures in 737 Crashes
Sep 17 2020 // Two Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed all 346 passengers and crew aboard were the “horrific culmination” of failures by the planemaker and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a U.S. House panel concluded...
Boeing Crash Victims’ Families Want Congress to Lift Shield on Planemakers’ Liability
Sep 16 2020 // Families of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims are urging U.S. lawmakers to ensure the planemaker is held accountable for accidents that together killed 346 people by blocking a key legal defense, according to a letter sent on...
London Court Rules Some Insurers Should Not Have Denied Business Interruption Claims
Sep 15 2020 // London judges have ruled that some of the world’s biggest insurers were wrong to reject tens of thousands of claims from small firms battered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority...
Inside Big Pharma’s Stealth War on Drug Price Watchdog: Reuters Special Report
Sep 11 2020 // As evidence grew this spring that the drug remdesivir was helping COVID-19 patients, some Wall Street investors bet on analysts’ estimates that its maker, Gilead Sciences Inc., could charge up to $10,000 for the...
EU Wants Better Self-Regulation by Facebook, Google, Twitter; Plans Liability Changes
Sep 11 2020 // Two years after agreeing to a self-regulatory code of practice to tackle disinformation, Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Twitter and other tech rivals must try harder to be more effective, the European Commission said...
Hurricane Irma’s ‘Last Gasp’: 3-Year Claims Deadline Put to the Test
Sep 10 2020 // It’s been 3 years since Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 storm, and the trail of damage left in its wake is still being felt across the state today, particularly by the insurance industry as it...
Trump Labor Rule That Narrows ‘Joint Employer’ Standard Struck Down by Judge
Sep 9 2020 // A federal judge on Tuesday struck down a Trump administration rule that narrowed the definition of “joint employer,” and which the attorneys general of 17 states and Washington, D.C. said would eliminate...
FAIA Chief Grady Says Goodbye, Shares Top Moments in 22-Year Career
Sep 7 2020 // Jeff Grady For 22 years, the Florida Association of Insurance Agents has been led by Jeff Grady, president and chief executive officer, who admits that when he started all those years ago he did not expect to “fall...
Charges May be Brought in California Boat Fire That Killed 34
Sep 4 2020 // Nine days after the scuba boat Conception went down in flames with 34 people trapped below deck in one of the deadliest disasters in California maritime history, a federal grand jury began looking into whether a crime had...
Federal Judge Dismisses Florida Dentist’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Claim
Sep 4 2020 // A federal judge in Florida has dismissed a suit for business interruption insurance payments by a Florida dentist who claimed the damages were caused by COVID-19 virus and related civil authority shutdowns of dental...
Florida Workers’ Comp Rates Going Down, Again
Sep 4 2020 // The downward trend for Florida workers’ compensation rates is set to continue next year thanks to favorable loss experiences from policy years 2017 and 2018. The latest filing from the National Council on...
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Board: TVA Exec Retaliated Against Safety Whistleblower
Sep 3 2020 // The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded that a Tennessee Valley Authority executive retaliated against a safety whistleblower. Vice President Joseph Shea “played a significant role” in the 2018...
Mass. Court Rules Statute of Limitations, Fair Report Privilege Apply in Defamation Case
Sep 3 2020 // A Massachusetts appeals court has ruled in favor of an online newspaper in a defamation case, holding that the statute of limitations and fair report privilege apply to articles the newspaper published regarding two...
Why Some Organizations Are Managing Coronavirus Risk Better Than Others
Sep 1 2020 // While few, if any, organizations saw the coronavirus pandemic and all of its death and disruption coming, some were better positioned to deal with it than others. According to risk expert Jim Wetekamp, some organizations...
