Latest Legislation Headlines

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

In Pennsylvania, New Legislation Allows Doctors to Apologize

Oct 25 2013 // A decade after a back-and-forth legislative battle that saw both doctors and lawyers visiting the state capitol by the hundreds – perhaps thousands – to argue for or against tort reforms that led to state law...

Texas DPS Touts Success of Border Crime, Vehicle Safety Initiative

Oct 25 2013 // The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) announced that a multi-agency law enforcement initiative, dubbed Operation Strong Safety, that targeted crime, unsafe commercial vehicles and unsafe driving practices has been...

Florida Court Lifts Ban on PIP Law But Challenge Continues

Oct 25 2013 // Florida’s no-fault automobile insurance law is fully in force for now after a district court lifted an injunction that blocked part of law on a legal technicality leaving open the possibility for further challenges...

Louisiana Lawmakers Urged to Act on Flood Insurance Rate Hikes

Oct 24 2013 // Louisiana lawmakers are being urged to reach out to their colleagues in other states, to draw more attention to dramatic rate increases in flood insurance costs around the nation. Don Cravins, chief of staff for U.S. Sen....

Arkansas Judge OKs Class-Action Status in Marlboro Lights Suit

Oct 24 2013 // A judge in Arkansas has granted class-action status to a lawsuit that claims Philip Morris USA deliberately exaggerated the safety of its Marlboro Lights cigarettes.Attorneys for Philip Morris had argued that any lawsuits...

Missouri Insurance Department Adds Lederer as Property/Casualty Actuary

Oct 24 2013 // The Missouri Department of Insurance announced that Julie Lederer has joined the department as the appointed Missouri property/casualty actuary.Lederer will support the Divisions of Insurance Company Regulation and...

North Carolina Captive Insurance Law Now in Effect

Oct 24 2013 // North Carolina is open for business as a domicile for captive insurance companies. The North Carolina Captive Insurance Act, signed into law on June 19, is now in effect, allowing for the formation of captive insurance...

Federal Court Rules Delaware Business Court’s Private Arbitration Is Unconstitutional

Oct 24 2013 // Delaware’s legal industry suffered a blow when a federal court found on Wednesday the state violated the U.S. Constitution with its novel system of allowing judges to arbitrate private business disputes, which...

Flood Insurance Price Increases Affecting Home Sales

Oct 24 2013 // Rangel Dockery and her husband bought a waterfront house in Florida four months ago, assuming their $2,000-a-year flood-insurance premium would remain about the same. After reading recently about a change in the federal...

Bill to Curb ‘Patent Trolls’ Introduced in Congress

Oct 24 2013 // A U.S. congressman, who has led the charge against frivolous patent infringement lawsuits, introduced a bill on Wednesday to curb the behavior of so-called “patent trolls” but faced criticism that some of the...

After JPMorgan $13B Deal, Banks Seek Protections in Future Bailouts

Oct 24 2013 // As the U.S. government closes in on a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase & Co. over its mortgage practices, lawyers specializing in bank mergers are looking for ways to protect their clients from big losses in...

Florida Regulators Disapprove NCCI’s 1% WC Rate Increase Proposal

Oct 23 2013 // Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty today issued an order notifying the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) that its 1-percent proposed annual rate filing increase in Florida’s workers’...

U.S. Unveils Draft of Voluntary Corporate Cybersecurity Standards

Oct 22 2013 // A U.S. bureau on Tuesday unveiled a draft of voluntary standards that companies can adopt to boost cybersecurity – part of an attempt to protect critical industries without setting restrictive and costly...

Illinois Bills Call for Stiffer Penalties for Boating DUI

Oct 22 2013 // Illinois lawmakers are considering a series of measures aimed at making the state’s waterways safer, including a bill that would impose stiffer penalties on people caught operating a boat while intoxicated.The...

Supreme Court Declines Privacy Claim Against Resale of Driving Records

Oct 22 2013 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider whether a unit of Thomson Reuters Corp. can obtain and sell information on drivers provided by state agencies without violating a federal privacy law.The decision not...

Insurer Plans IPO Despite Not Making Profit Yet

Oct 21 2013 // NMI Holdings Inc., the mortgage guarantor backed by Kyle Bass, Carlyle Group LP and BlueMountain Capital Management LLC, is seeking to be the first U.S. insurer since 2009 to file an initial public offering without posting...

Insurer Complaints

Oct 21 2013 // It’s no surprise that claims handling ranks in the top 10 when it comes to insurer complaints, but producer licensing issues also appear to be a top grievance.According to a new report by Waltham, Mass.-based Wolters...

Is Private Market an Option for Florida Flood Insurance?

Oct 21 2013 // With thousands of Florida homeowners facing significant increases in their federal flood insurance premiums, state lawmakers are considering ways to open up the market to private insurers.Industry experts, however, say...

Florida Enters Era of Workers’ Compensation Market Stability

Oct 21 2013 // Florida’s workers’ compensation system has reached a rare state of rate stability, according to insurers and officials.The agency, the National Council on Compensation Insurance, filed for a one percent...

Louisiana High Court Strikes Down Immigrant Driver Law

Oct 18 2013 // The Louisiana Supreme Court has struck down a state law that made it a crime for people who aren’t U.S. citizens to drive here without carrying proof of their immigration status.The divided court ruled that the state...