Latest Legislation Headlines

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

Nasdaq Denied Immunity for Some Investors’ Claims Over Facebook IPO

Dec 17 2013 // Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. must face some of the negligence and securities law claims by investors who alleged they suffered $500 million in damages from the exchange’s handling of Facebook Inc.’s May 2012 initial...

Indiana Judge Dismisses Unions from Burned Man’s Compensation Suit

Dec 16 2013 // An eastern Indiana judge has dismissed two unions from a lawsuit against a transportation company, an insurance agency and several insurers filed by a man badly burned when he fell into a tank of chemicals heated to about...

ABIR Comments on ComFrame Supervision, Int’l. Insurance Capital Standards

Dec 16 2013 // In comments filed with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) offered its support for the development of insurance capital standards (ICS)...

Canada Considers Requiring Emergency Response Plans for Rail Oil Shipments

Dec 16 2013 // Canada is considering classifying crude oil as a higher-risk, dangerous product, requiring emergency response plans for shipment by rail following a train accident that leveled the heart of a Quebec town in July, a...

PCI Expresses Concern with ‘Unnecessary’ Regulation in ComFrame Draft

Dec 16 2013 // The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) has submitted formal comments to the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) on its ComFrame Consultation Draft stating that ComFrame, while...

P/C Industry Supportive But Cautious on Federal Insurance Office Recommendations

Dec 13 2013 // Insurers, agents, brokers and state regulators welcome modernization and improvements in the current regulation of insurance, but are not so welcoming of changes that might invite regulation by the federal government.The...

Ascent Launches Medical Billings E&O Coverage for U.S. Healthcare Professionals

Dec 13 2013 // Ascent Underwriting, the Managing General Agent (MGA) specialising in emerging risks, has launched a medical billings errors & omissions insurance product specifically aimed at U.S. healthcare professionals.CyberPro...

Gun Group, North Carolina Locals At Odds Over Firearms in Playgrounds

Dec 13 2013 // When North Carolina lawmakers approved a bill expanding where concealed weapons are legally allowed, it created a dilemma for communities that had banned firearms from playgrounds.To comply with the legislation, some...

Federal Insurance Office Releases Long-Awaited Modernization Report

Dec 12 2013 // After nearly two years of delay, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) today released its report on how to modernize and improve the system of insurance regulation in the United...

Insurance Shows That Federalism Works

Dec 12 2013 // Fifty-four years ago, the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations was established by statute to examine the best or most logical accommodations of federalism. For many years, it held quarterly meetings in the...

Florida Commissioner Announces Appointment of Chief of Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff

Dec 11 2013 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced Rebecca Matthews has been appointed chief of staff for the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.Matthews has been serving in the interim chief of staff...

Big Brains at Big ‘I’, Insurance Information Institute Give Their Take on 2014

Dec 11 2013 // Most economists are upbeat about next year, but just what does that mean for insurance agents in 2014?For independent agents 2013 was a year in which one entity forecasted their eventual demise, and for the rest of the...

Indiana Steelworkers Await High Court Ruling on Pay for Donning Protective Gear

Dec 10 2013 // A group of Indiana steelworkers is awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court decision on when the clock starts on their shifts at U.S. Steel Gary Works.The nation’s highest court recently heard arguments in a case filed by eight...

Judge Blocks BP Investors from Suing as Group Over Losses

Dec 9 2013 // BP Plc’s U.S. investors can’t pursue as a group claims that the company inflated its shares with misleading statements before and after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a judge ruled, citing a recent Supreme Court...

Glass-Steagall Firewall Could Return If Volcker Rule Disappoints

Dec 9 2013 // Five U.S. agencies will finish the Volcker rule tomorrow after more than three years of Wall Street resistance to its limits on trading and investing. Lawmakers and their allies who want to rein in big banks are ready to...

AIA Supports Curbing Physician-Dispensed Medications in Penn. WC System

Dec 6 2013 // The American Insurance Association (AIA) submitted a statement Wednesday to the Pennsylvania House Labor Committee, in support of state legislation aimed at controlling costs associated with physician dispensing of...

Proposal to Raise Gift Allowance from Lobbyists Raises Concern in Oklahoma

Dec 6 2013 // A plan to increase by 500 percent the amount in meals and other gifts that a lobbyist can give to a legislator in Oklahoma each year is raising concerns from a public watchdog group and some state legislators over the...

Obama Product Safety Chief Tenenbaum Returns to South Carolina

Dec 6 2013 // After four years in Washington as the nation’s products safety czar, Inez Tenenbaum is coming home to the Columbia area, her life changed in ways large and small.“Now I’m always giving advice unsolicited...

House Passes Bill to Curb Patent Lawsuits

Dec 5 2013 // The U.S. House passed legislation to rein in some patent lawsuits that technology companies say could reduce the time they spend fighting such suits in court.The vote today was 325-91, with 27 Republicans and 64 Democrats...

Lawsuits Challenging Obamacare Cite Religion, Tax Issues

Dec 5 2013 // Hours after the University of Notre Dame filed a religious challenge to the U.S. health-care overhaul in Indiana federal court, a judge in Washington heard arguments in a lawsuit assailing tax provisions of the statute.The...