Latest Legislation Headlines

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

Judge Reduces Award to West Virginia Surgeon in Malpractice Insurance Case

Jul 14 2008 // A judge in West Virginia reduced by more than half a jury’s multimillion-dollar award to a Charleston surgeon whose hospital privileges were wrongfully revoked.A Kanawha County jury in February awarded Dr. R.E....

Congress Debates Regulation; Treasury Urges Federal Insurance Option

Jul 10 2008 // Congress began debating financial regulatory reform today, with the Bush Administration advocating a dual federal and state regulatory system for insurance companies similar to the banking system as part of the...

House Subcommittee Moves Key Federal Insurance Regulation Bills

Jul 10 2008 // In a big week for insurance lobbyists, a key House subcommittee advanced three major insurance regulatory measures.The U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored...

Judge Recuses Self from Kentucky Fen-Phen Retrial

Jul 9 2008 // The federal judge who oversaw the eight-week trial of two lawyers accused of conspiring to defraud their clients out of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement won’t handle the retrial.U.S. District Judge William O....

Mass. Allows Liquor Liability JUA to Expand as Hospitality Mutual

Jul 8 2008 // Massachusetts lawmakers have approved legislation converting the state’s liquor liability insurer of last resort into a competitive mutual insurance company offering liquor liability insurance to the entire...

Interview: N.Y.’s Dinallo Sees Insurance Exchange Open by 2009

Jul 8 2008 // New York Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo said Monday a revival of the defunct New York Insurance Exchange could happen as early as next year.Dinallo, in a telephone interview from New York, said the next 18 months...

U.S. Supreme Court Seen Siding with Business on Key Issues

Jul 8 2008 // The Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has carved out a reputation for pro-business rulings in a series of important decisions.In its recently ended term, the high court threw out the largest punitive damages...

Nation’s Insurance Commissioners Search for New CEO; Weatherford Exits

Jul 7 2008 // Catherine J. Weatherford, executive vice president and CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) for the past 12 years, confirmed reports that she will be leaving the association.Weatherford is...

N.Y. Engineers Rescue of Workers’ Comp Trusts

Jul 7 2008 // New York State lawmakers have authorized $52 million from an emergency state fund to assure uninterrupted payment of benefits of injured workers whose employers’ self-insured workers’ compensation trusts have...

Contingent Commissions Legal, N.Y. Court Rules

Jul 7 2008 // In a twist to a scandal that has rocked the insurance industry over the last several years, a New York appeals court has ruled that contingent commissions paid out by Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group Inc. are not...

National Insurer Wants to Include Flood Coverage in Home Policies

Jul 7 2008 // One of the nation’s largest insurance companies is lobbying Congress for permission to sell policies that cover damage from both wind and flood water, a plan billed as a way for insurers and homeowners to avoid...

Court Rules Contingent Commissions Legal

Jul 7 2008 // In a twist to a scandal that has rocked the insurance industry over the last several years, a New York appeals court has ruled that contingent commissions paid out by Boston-based Liberty Mutual Group Inc. are not...

Less Regulation is ‘More,’ PCI Ceo Says

Jul 7 2008 // David Sampson, CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), thinks most public policy makers want to do the right thing but they too often get hung up on clouded rhetoric and misleading media...

National Insurer Wants to Include Flood Coverage in Home Policies

Jul 7 2008 // One of the nation’s largest insurance companies is lobbying Congress for permission to sell policies that cover damage from both wind and flood water, a plan billed as a way for insurers and homeowners to avoid...

California Considering Pay-As-You-Drive Auto Insurance

Jul 7 2008 // California’s Department of Insurance as well as state legislators are considering bringing pay-as-you-drive automobile insurance to the state, a system in which automobile insurance premiums would more accurately...

Texas High Court Rules Contractor Not at Fault in Jail Death

Jul 3 2008 // The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the descendents of a man who was found hanged with a telephone cord in a jail cell have no standing to recover damages from the contractor that supplied the telephone.In JCW...

Prosecutors Seek Joint Trial for La. Lawmaker Linked to Insurance Scam

Jul 2 2008 // A Louisiana state senator should be tried alongside the woman he allegedly helped launder money to hide her illegal operation of an insurance business, prosecutors argue in court papers filed June 30,State Sen. Derrick...

New York Governor Signs Flex-Rating and NYPIUA Bill

Jul 2 2008 // New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law industry-sought legislation that brings back flex rating for auto insurance and makes permanent New York’s homeowners insurer of last resort.The flex-rating...

Walter Bell Appointed to Bermuda Monetary Authority’s Board

Jul 1 2008 // The Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA) announced that it has appointed Walter A. Bell to a position on its Board of Directors, as its first international member.The BMA regulates financial services for Bermuda-based...

Lloyd’s on ‘Rogue Traders’

Jul 1 2008 // It appears the “rogue” trading in the investment banking industry may not be an isolated problem. After Jerome Kerviel cost French bank Société Générale to book some $5 billion in losses, Morgan Stanley...