Latest Legislation Headlines

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

Tenn. Supreme Court Rules Marijuana Not a Factor in Worker’s Injury

Jul 9 2007 // The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a worker whose hand was crushed by machinery at his workplace was not to blame for the accident despite his admitted marijuana use off the job.Billy McIntosh was injured in 2004...

Mattress Manufacturers Awake to New U.S. Flammability Standards

Jul 6 2007 // It took less than three minutes for the old mattress to become a flaming inferno. And even inside the safe confines of a Sealy Corp. testing lab in North Carolina, it took a technician armed with a gas mask and fire...

Senate Confirms Marsh Counsel Sullivan to be U.S. Judge

Jul 6 2007 // The U.S. Senate has confrmed Richard J. Sullivan to serve as a district judge on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York.Sullivan currently serves as general counsel for Marsh Inc., Marsh &...

Fla. CFO Cuts State’s Workers Comp Charge to Insurers

Jul 5 2007 // Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink ordered a 50 percent cut in the 2008 Workers’ Compensation Administration Trust Fund assessment rate.The reduction is projected to result in as much as $19 million in savings...

Guy Carp Issues UK Liability Survey

Jul 5 2007 // Guy Carpenter & Company, the global risk and reinsurance specialist of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, has published “A Year in Review – 2006 Update,” its fourth annual review of the liability...

S&P: Outlooks on Most Asia-Pacific Insurance Markets is Stable

Jul 5 2007 // The Hong Kong office of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a report affirming the stable outlook on most of the insurance markets in the Asia-Pacific region. “They reflect strengthening balance...

Nevada Consumers Puzzle over Using Credit History to Set Rates

Jul 5 2007 // As Ed Rathje sees it, his first foray into the Nevada Legislature as a citizen-activist ended in “total defeat” earlier this month when a bill he was pushing to limit the insurance industry’s use of...

Insurer Group: La. Legislature Acts to Revive Marketplace

Jul 2 2007 // The Louisiana Legislature adjourned last week after sending to the governor a series of bills including one that abolishes the state’s insurane rating board.The enactment of HB 960, which abolishes the Louisiana...

Drinking Buddies Not Liable as Social Hosts, Mass. Court Rules

Jul 2 2007 // The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled that friends who meet regularly after work for drinks cannot be held liable for injuries caused when one of the members of their group drives home intoxicated.The court ruled that...

Lawyers, businesses groups tackle Oregon product liability laws

Jul 2 2007 // Business advocates and trial lawyers could be headed for a showdown over Oregon’s product liability laws before the legislative session comes to its scheduled end, and the verdict is anything but certain.The fight is...

Focus key to surviving insurance industry challenges

Jul 2 2007 // The “big problems” facing insurance agents and brokers today are human resources; government intervention; sustaining agency revenue growth/profit; maintaining a consistent company strategy and tactics; and...

Judge sides with Okla. AG on challenges to suit

Jul 2 2007 // A federal judge in mid-June sided with the state of Okla-homa on several legal challenges brought by the poultry industry in an attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson.After two days...

Industry Challenges

Jul 2 2007 // It’s great to have peripheral ways of generating business and revenue, but stay focused on your core.Focus key to surviving insurance industry challenges The “big problems” facing insurance agents and...

After fast start with workers’ comp, Albany sputters

Jul 2 2007 // The Assembly has had its own reasons for moving slowly, especially on insurance bills — its insurance committee lacked leadership.Despite the state having a new governor, The New York Legislature continues with its...

Supreme Court ruling limits investors’ antitrust

Jul 2 2007 // Last month’s U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that blocks investors from suing Wall Street investment banks under antitrust laws could save Wall Street firms a bundle by limiting investors to smaller recoveries.In a...

Contracts count when dealing with subcontractors

Jul 2 2007 // Language, legislative knowledge, and right insurance partner keys to wrapping up volatile marketOne of the many challenges general contractors — both commercial and residential — have faced over the past five...

Declarations

Jul 2 2007 // DeclarationsDangerous pooches “You never hear stories about roving packs of golden retrievers attacking children in our streets. … But you do hear about the pit bulls, who are responsible, according to...

News Currents

Jul 2 2007 // Gov. Riley halts hike in Alabama auto liability limitsAlabama Gov. Bob Riley decided to veto legislation that would have raised the minimum liability insurance limits that motorists must buy because he was concerned the...

Fla. regulators again irk insurers over credit rule

Jul 2 2007 // Property/casualty insurers are complaining that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is “off the mark” in developing rules implementing a law passed in 2003 addressing insurers’ use of credit...

Focus key to surviving insurance industry challenges

Jul 2 2007 // The “big problems” facing insurance agents and brokers today are human resources; government intervention; sustaining agency revenue growth/profit; maintaining a consistent company strategy and tactics; and...