All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Mar 3 2008 // More than two decades after the country established a uniform drinking age of 21, a nascent movement is afoot to allow 18- to 20-year-olds to legally buy alcohol under some circumstances.Proponents say the higher age...
Mar 3 2008 // The Minnesota House approved a $40 million fund last week to compensate victims of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse.The vote was 120-10 after a debate on the same day that lawmakers learned the state’s projected...
Mar 3 2008 // A federal judge dismissed a criminal contempt charge against Mississippi attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs last week, giving the prominent lawyer one less case to worry about as he fights a more serious bribery...
Feb 29 2008 // A U.S. federal judge Thursday granted Pfizer Inc.’s motion to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit that alleged the company hid information and made misleading claims about a failed experimental cholesterol drug in order to...
Feb 28 2008 // The state House approved legislation Tuesday that would bring Alabama in line with about half the South by raising the minimum amount of auto liability insurance that motorists must buy.The House voted 82-0 for legislation...
Feb 28 2008 // Speaking to over 400 insurance industry executives at A.M. Best’s 15th Annual Review and Preview Conference in Naples, Fla., Tom Ealy, most recently COO of the Willis North America unit of Willis Group Holdings,...
Feb 28 2008 // State lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund, the insurer of last resort for many motorists, to accept installment payments like private companies.Advocates say the...
Feb 28 2008 // Parents facing financial ruin because their insurance companies will not pay for treatment of autistic children appealed for help from Oklahoma lawmakers earlier this week.They lobbied for revival of Nick’s Law,...
Feb 27 2008 // The widow of a Connecticut Superior Court judge cannot pursue a lawsuit claiming the state worked her husband to death, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled.The high court struck down a special act of the legislature,...
Feb 27 2008 // Rhode Island lawmakers are proposing a system to investigate and track medical mistakes and so-called “near misses” after brain surgeons at Rhode Island Hospital operated on the wrong side of patients’...
Feb 27 2008 // Former Pa. Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce wants his federal insurance fraud trial moved out of Erie to U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh. Joyce’s attorney says news coverage of the case has generated enormous...
Feb 27 2008 // A judge has refused to reduce charges against three men accused of burning down a mosque in Columbia, Tenn.Defense attorneys argued unsuccessfully Monday that the charges should be reduced to arson, instead of arson of a...
Feb 27 2008 // A circuit judge in West Virginia has upheld a $196.2 million punitive damages award against DuPont in a class-action pollution case.Harrison County Circuit Court Chief Judge Thomas A. Bedell also ordered the Wilmington,...
Feb 26 2008 // For the second time in four years, Oklahoma’s speaker of the House has convened a panel of lawmakers to investigate whether a statewide elected official should be impeached.But the eight-member panel that will...
Feb 25 2008 // The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday sent two medical malpractice lawsuits back to district court after offering a new opinion on how the statute of limitations can be interpreted.The decision, which affects a breast cancer...
Feb 25 2008 // The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can collect insurance only for damage inflicted on two buildings of the World Trade Center site destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, rather than for the entire complex, a U.S. District...
Feb 24 2008 // U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters recently sent legislation to Congress that seeks greater flexibility for states to target one of the leading causes of motorcycle deaths across the nation: riding without a...
Feb 24 2008 // BMS, a reinsurance intermediary based in Philadelphia, has appointed James T. Buysse as chief executive officer of its North American operations, BMS Intermediaries Inc.Buysse has 25 years of experience in the reinsurance...
Feb 24 2008 // A Democratic lawmaker is pushing legislation in California that would prohibit doctors from considering age, race or genetic factors in determining the size of workers’ compensation benefits for employees who suffer...
Feb 24 2008 // If anything is certain in the world of technology, it’s that it is always changing — rapidly. Electronic and Internet communication devices that were unheard of 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago, are so...