Figures

$247 Billion

U.S. tort costs totaled $247 billion in 2006, which is $57 less per person than in 2005 at approximately $825 per person, according to an update on U.S. Tort Cost Trends from the Tillinghast insurance consulting practice of Towers Perrin. The $13.4 billion decrease over tort costs in 2005 marks the first downward trend since 1997. The report considered U.S. tort costs from 1950 through 2006, with projections through 2009. A 5.5 percent decline in tort costs was markedly less than overall U.S. economic growth of 6.1 percent, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

13

The number of named Atlantic storms predicted by Colorado State University researcher William Gray for 2008. Gray used a forecasting technique that is simplified from years past to predict an above-average hurricane season in the Atlantic next year. His research team predicts seven hurricanes in 2008, three of them major, the Associated Press reported. There is a slightly higher-than-average chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the United States, the research team said. An average of 5.9 hurricanes form in the Atlantic each year.

$435,298.25

The settlement amount reached between Reba Irons of Fort Smith, Ark., and Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America in a case involving an insurance agent who sold annuities for Allianz. Phillip Middleton was sentenced in August to twenty years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, with ten years suspended after he pleaded guilty to five counts of property theft. Middleton had been accused of taking money from Irons and investing it in his personal business ventures rather than the annuities. In addition to his jail time, he was ordered to pay more than $138,000 in restitution to Irons. Allianz released the settlement money with interest and without penalty. The Arkansas Insurance Department revoked Middleton’s license in November 2006.

Topics USA Hurricane