CONN. BILLS SIGNED:

Before he resigned, Connecticut Gov. John Rowland signed into law a number of bills of interest to the property/casualty industry including bills on workers’ compensation coverage and terrorism coverage exclusion. Among the bills that the governor signed into law are: S.B. 130, a workers’ comp bill which conforms the time period for making certain payments to a recent statutory change in the time period for filing an appeal with the Compensation Review Board within the Workers’ Compensation Commission; H.B. 5340, a workers’ comp bill which expands the circumstances in which a claim can proceed despite the claimant’s failure to provide timely notice of claim and to require workers’ comp commissioners to explain to employees appearing before them the rights, benefits and responsibilities of employees under the Workers’ Compensation Act; effective Oct. 1; H.B. 5200, the Standard Fire Policy exclusion bill, which allows commercial risk insurers to exclude loss due to terrorism, as defined by the Insurance Commissioner; and H.B. 5548, allowing the insurance commissioner to waive some examination requirements concerned with residual payments made to heirs and assignees of insurance producers. Perhaps the most newsworthy bill was one that wasn’t signed into law. H.B. 5669, a medical malpractice reform bill, passed the Legislature but was vetoed by Gov. Rowland last month. The governor stated that the bill, which lacked caps on noneconomic damages in jury awards, “created the illusion of reform and therefore will likely undermine any opportunity for meaningful reform in the near term if allowed to become law.”