Latest Legislation Headlines

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

Judge Tosses California Lawsuit of Man Who Was Nude Baby on Album Cover

Jan 6 2022 // A federal judge has dismissed the lawsuit of a 30-year-old man who alleged that the image of him nude as a 4-month-old on the 1991 cover of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album is child pornography.Judge Fernando...

Judge Narrows SEC Claim vs Morningstar Over Undisclosed Bond Rating Changes

Jan 6 2022 // A U.S. judge on Wednesday narrowed but refused to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit accusing Morningstar Inc. of letting analysts adjust credit rating models for about $30 billion of mortgage securities,...

Judge Approves Partial Settlement in 2018 Fatal Shooting by Kansas City Police

Jan 4 2022 // A federal judge has approved a partial settlement of a lawsuit filed by the parents of a man who was shot and killed by Kansas City police in 2018.Court records do not include the amount of the settlement paid to the...

Unfinished Business Awaits California Lawmakers

Jan 4 2022 // California lawmakers are flush with money and unfinished business from last year as they returned to the state Capitol on Monday, but they head into an election year rife with uncertainty due to the redrawing of...

Judges Send Iowa Tyson Workers’ Virus Lawsuit Back to State Court

Jan 4 2022 // A federal appeals court has ruled that Tyson Foods can’t claim it was operating under the direction of the federal government when it tried to keep its processing plants open as the coronavirus spread rapidly within...

Judge Orders Mediation for Purdue Pharma, Sacklers, States Over Opioid Settlement

Jan 4 2022 // A U.S. judge on Monday ordered mediation in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy, calling for the company, the Sackler family members that own it and nine states to determine whether they can reach a new opioid litigation...

Judge Holds Skanska Negligent for Barge Damage During Florida Hurricane

Dec 30 2021 // A federal judge has found that Skanksa USA, part of one of the largest construction companies in the world, failed to secure its barges before a 2020 Florida hurricane hit. The ruling opens the door to hundreds of lawsuits...

Purdue Bankruptcy Judge Extends Sacklers’ Lawsuit Shield Until February

Dec 30 2021 // A bankruptcy judge has extended temporary protections against opioid-related litigation for the Sackler family members who own Purdue Pharma until Feb. 1 after another judge overturned the OxyContin maker’s...

Italian Judge Drops Case Against Unipol CEO Over Merger With Insurer Fondiaria

Dec 27 2021 // An Italian judge on Thursday dropped a case against the CEO of Unipol and six other people related to the 2013 merger between Italy’s second-largest insurer and smaller rival Fondiaria-SAI, a judicial document seen...

Indiana Lawmakers Consider Vaccine Limits as COVID Surges

Dec 20 2021 // Some Indiana doctors and health experts warned last week that a Republican-backed proposal aimed at limiting workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements would hurt efforts to stem the illness as the state’s hospitals...

Update: After Latest Court Ruling, Must Employers Follow Biden’s Vaccine Mandates?

Dec 19 2021 // Tens of millions of workers across the U.S. are in limbo as federal courts have issued different rulings related to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates for larger private companies, certain health care...

Amid COVID, Insurance Regulation Remains Profitable

Dec 19 2021 // This post is part of an Insurance Journal blog presenting the work and viewpoints of The International Center for Law & Economics.The COVID-19 pandemic hit state budgets particularly hard in 2020, with a $24.11 billion...

Per-person Limits Apply, Not Per-accident in Deadly Crash, Carolina High Court Rules

Dec 17 2021 // It’s not unusual for uninsured and underinsured motorist policies to carry per-person limits and per-accident limits. But in North Carolina, which limit applies isn’t always so easy to determine, thanks to what...

Judge Rules Dominion Defamation Suit Against Fox News Can Move Forward

Dec 17 2021 // Fox News probably had enough information after the 2020 presidential election to know a conspiracy theory claiming Dominion Voting Systems Inc. rigged the contest was false, a judge said in denying the network’s...

Google Faces Heavy Fines in Russia After Court Rules in Favor of Putin Ally

Dec 17 2021 // Alphabet Inc.’s Google is facing potentially heavy fines in Russia after a court ruled it must unblock the YouTube account of a TV channel owned by a sanctioned ally of President Vladimir Putin.The Moscow Ninth...

Judge Tosses $4.5B Deal Shielding Sacklers From Purdue Opioid Claims

Dec 17 2021 // A federal judge has thrown out a $4.5 billion settlement that would have shielded the Sackler family, which owned OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, from future lawsuits over opioids, upending the company’s plan to...

400 Adjuster Firms Licensed Under Florida’s New Law

Dec 14 2021 // More than 400 claims-adjusting firms have been licensed in Florida in the last month, in keeping with a state law that requires that firms, not just adjusters, go through the licensing process, the state’s chief...

US Lawmakers Propose Bill Making Staged Collisions Federal Crime

Dec 10 2021 // U.S. Congressmen Garret Graves and Henry Cuellar have introduced a bill that would make it a federal crime to stage a vehicle collision and fraudulently claim financial damages.Graves (R-LA) and Cuellar (D-TX) say the...

Astroworld Lawsuits to be Handled by One Judge

Dec 9 2021 // The more than 300 lawsuits that have been filed so far in Houston following a massive crowd surge at the Astroworld festival that left 10 people dead have been consolidated and will be handled by one judge as the cases...

Auto Insurers Can Use ‘Hybrid’ Model on Med Reimbursement, Florida High Court Rules

Dec 9 2021 // Automobile insurance carriers in Florida may limit reimbursement to health providers in keeping with a fee schedule in a personal injury protection policy, the Florida Supreme Court decided in a decision posted...