More Insurance Coverage
-
January 27, 2025
Anadarko Prevails In La. Kickback Defense Coverage Suit
An environmental remediation company should defend and indemnify Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in a decade-old Louisiana kickback lawsuit, a Texas federal court judge has ruled.
-
January 27, 2025
Allstate Beats Plan Participants' $70M Poor-Performance Suit
An Illinois federal judge handed Allstate a pretrial win Monday over retirement plan participants' claim that the insurer cost them nearly $70 million by holding on to poor-performing funds, saying the plaintiffs' "apples and oranges" comparisons will not sway a jury in their favor.
-
January 24, 2025
Wells Fargo Gets Another Win In Lifetrade Investor Suit
A New York federal judge determined that investors of Lifetrade Fund BV cannot prove Wells Fargo aided or abetted an alleged massive fraud orchestrated by Lifetrade's managers, saying the investors presented only contradictory information regarding the value of the Lifetrade portfolio.
-
January 24, 2025
Grier Wright Tapped For Insurance Mogul's $2B Liquidation
Bankruptcy attorney Joseph Grier of Grier Wright Martinez PA will serve as special master to identify, receive, track and distribute billions of dollars that will go toward restitution to victims defrauded by convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, a North Carolina federal judge ruled.
-
January 21, 2025
4th Circ. Won't Undo Doctor's Conviction For Reusing Devices
A former North Carolina ear, nose and throat doctor staring down 25 years in prison for healthcare fraud lost an appeal Tuesday seeking to overturn her conviction, with the Fourth Circuit finding that the lower court did not commit any reversible error that would favor a shot at redemption.
-
January 21, 2025
Lyft Driver Says Carjacking Suit Should've Settled Sooner
A Lyft driver accused his insurer of violating Washington's Insurance Fair Conduct Act over his bid for uninsured motorist benefits following a carjacking, saying the insurer forced him to go to arbitration and win an over $1.1 million award rather than accept his earlier $1 million policy limit demands.
-
January 17, 2025
Insurers Needn't Cover Plastic-Maker For Worker Death Suit
Travelers and Zurich insurers don't owe indemnification to Ohio-based manufacturer Encore Plastics for a suit over a worker's death, a federal court ruled Friday, saying a "direct intent" exclusion applies to the underlying claims arising under an Ohio statute that authorizes employer liability for intentional torts.
-
January 15, 2025
Crash Claimant Can't Appeal After Payout, NJ Justices Say
A plaintiff in an automobile personal injury case who accepts full payment of a final judgment and executes a warrant to satisfy it may not appeal a ruling barring evidence of future medical expenses unless they state their intent to appeal before accepting the payment, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
-
January 15, 2025
Symetra Life Policyholders Seek $32.5M Settlement Approval
A proposed class of Symetra policyholders asked a Washington federal court to preliminarily approve a $32.5 million deal to resolve a suit alleging that the insurer overcharged them for life insurance, saying the 11-state settlement would cover the owners of 43,000 policies.
-
January 15, 2025
Chubb Unit Seeks Exit From Bar's $105M Drunken Driving Suit
A Chubb unit said it no longer owes coverage to a bar appealing a $105 million judgment related to a drunken patron's car crash, telling a Texas federal court the bar violated the terms of the policy by refusing to cooperate with the insurer's defense.
-
January 13, 2025
Blue Cross Can't Skirt NC Hospital's Defamation Claims
A local hospital can pursue some of its defamation claims against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in a suit alleging the health insurer wrongly denied millions of dollars in reimbursements and falsely accused the facility of fraud, a federal judge ruled Monday.
-
January 13, 2025
Investment Firm Seeks Coverage For Hertz Buyback Suits
An investment adviser said its insurers must provide coverage for underlying actions related to the adviser's involvement in car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s stock buybacks, telling a Delaware state court that its primary carrier improperly denied coverage.
-
January 13, 2025
Justices Won't Hear Farming Partnership's Crop Policy Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a Ninth Circuit decision backing the Federal Crop Insurance Corp.'s conclusion that a farming partnership seeking to recover its $1.9 million policy limit didn't qualify for coverage.
-
January 10, 2025
Infosys Files Antitrust Counterclaims In Trade Secrets Suit
Healthcare payments software company Infosys has hit back with antitrust counterclaims against Cognizant TriZetto Software Group's Texas federal court suit accusing Infosys of abusing its system access to develop competing services.
-
January 10, 2025
9th Circ. Affirms Hearing Aid Co.'s Win Over Investor Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday handed a win to Eargo Inc. and affirmed the dismissal of a securities class action against the hearing aid company, which alleged that the company and its top brass acted with intent to commit insurance billing fraud.
-
January 08, 2025
Citizens Financial Group GC Jumps To Corebridge Financial
Citizens Financial Group Inc.'s general counsel is preparing a move to financial services company Corebridge Financial Inc. as its new general counsel next month.
-
January 06, 2025
Pa. Panel Permits Stacked UIM Benefits Within Same Policy
A woman severely injured in a motorcycle accident is entitled to underinsured motorist coverage under the same policy that directly covered the motorcycle, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled, finding that because she held a separate policy providing underinsured benefits, stacking was permitted under the former policy.
-
January 03, 2025
Victims Say Crypto Isn't Money, Safeco Must Cover Hack
A Washington couple is accusing Safeco Insurance Co. of illegally refusing coverage for $600,000 in cryptocurrency stolen by hackers, saying in a complaint removed to Seattle federal court on Thursday that the tokens should be classified as personal property, not money, which has a $250 loss limit on the pair's homeowners' policy.
-
January 01, 2025
2025 Michigan Cases To Watch
Attorneys predict the new five-justice Democratic majority on the Michigan Supreme Court this year could put teeth into a once-strong consumer protection statute, continue to tweak the state's premises liability law and could take on a federally posed question of the constitutionality of medical malpractice caps.
-
December 17, 2024
Express Scripts, OptumRx Can't Ditch LA County Opioid Suit
A California judge ruled Tuesday that Los Angeles County can keep pursuing a lawsuit claiming pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and OptumRx colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid epidemic, though the county must rework its complaint to specify how regulators were allegedly deceived.
-
December 17, 2024
Insurers Freed From Multivehicle House Collision Row
The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's decision, finding that the insurers of vehicles damaged during a 2019 semitruck accident were not responsible for paying for a home that was also destroyed in the incident because the other cars' involvement in the melee was secondary.
-
December 17, 2024
Oil Cos. Seek Coverage For Water Byproduct Pollution
Two oil and gas companies accused their commercial general liability insurer and certain Lloyd's of London underwriters of denying coverage for a release of waste byproduct in bad faith, telling a New Mexico federal court the release further triggered state-supervised remediation efforts that imposed additional costs.
-
December 16, 2024
UnitedHealthcare Shooting Suspect Hires Ex-NYC Prosecutor
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former veteran prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, has been retained to represent the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan earlier this month, a spokesperson for Agnifilo's firm said Monday.
-
December 16, 2024
Pa. Malpractice Fund Belongs To State, 3rd Circ. Rules
The Third Circuit said Monday in a precedential ruling that Pennsylvania's medical malpractice insurance fund is an agency of the state and that it can dip into the fund's $300 million budget surplus.
-
December 16, 2024
11th Circ. Appears Wary Of Doc's New Trial Bid In $27.5M Case
The Eleventh Circuit on Monday questioned whether a Georgia doctor and his medical practice should get a new trial in a $27.5 million False Claims Act case on the basis that he and an expert who wasn't allowed to testify at trial believed the thousands of treatments he billed for were medically necessary and could be covered by Medicare, saying that contention seems to contradict the doctor's prior statements.
Expert Analysis
-
How Law Firms Can Counteract The Loneliness Epidemic
The legal industry is facing an urgent epidemic of loneliness, affecting lawyer well-being, productivity, retention and profitability, and law firm leaders should take concrete steps to encourage the development of genuine workplace connections, says Michelle Gomez at Littler and Gwen Mellor Romans at Herald Talent.
-
5 Keys To Building Stronger Attorney-Client Relationships
Attorneys are often focused on being seen as the expert, but bonding with clients and prospects by sharing a few key personal details provides the basis for a caring, trusted and profoundly deeper business relationship, says Deb Feder at Feder Development.
-
Attorneys Must Act Now To Protect Judicial Independence
Given the Trump administration's recent moves threatening the independence of the judiciary, including efforts to impeach judges who ruled against executive actions, lawyers must protect the rule of law and resist attempts to dilute the judicial branch’s authority, says attorney Bhavleen Sabharwal.
-
Rethinking 'No Comment' For Clients Facing Public Crises
“No comment” is no longer a cost-free or even a viable public communications strategy for companies in crisis, and counsel must tailor their guidance based on a variety of competing factors to help clients emerge successfully, says Robert Bowers at Moore & Van Allen.
-
How Design Thinking Can Help Lawyers Find Purpose In Work
Lawyers everywhere are feeling overwhelmed amid mass government layoffs, increasing political instability and a justice system stretched to its limits — but a design-thinking framework can help attorneys navigate this uncertainty and find meaning in their work, say law professors at the University of Michigan.
-
Inconsistent Injury-In-Fact Rules Hinder Federal Practice
A recent Third Circuit decision, contradicting a previous ruling about whether consumers of contaminated products have suffered an injury in fact, illustrates the deep confusion this U.S. Supreme Court standard creates among federal judges and practitioners, who deserve a simpler method of determining which cases have federal standing, says Eric Dwoskin at Dwoskin Wasdin.
-
In-House Counsel Pointers For Preserving Atty-Client Privilege
Several recent rulings illustrate the challenges in-house counsel can face when attempting to preserve attorney-client privilege, but a few best practices can help safeguard communications and effectively assert the privilege in an increasingly scrutinized corporate environment, says Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics.
-
5 Argument Techniques For Policyholder Advocates
Winning insurance coverage disputes often comes down to who has articulated the more compelling interpretation of the relevant policy language, which is why the best policyholder advocates come back to certain tried and true argument approaches, says Greg Van Houten at Haynes Boone.
-
Disability Ruling Guides On Cases With Uncertain Causation
In Dime v. MetLife, a Washington federal court’s recent ruling in favor of a disability claimant instructs both claimants and insurers on the appropriate standard for establishing and making a disability determination when there is limited medical evidence explaining the disability’s cause, says Mark DeBofsky at DeBofsky Law.
-
Judge Should Not Have Been Reprimanded For Alito Essay
Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor's New York Times essay critiquing Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for potential ethical violations absolutely cannot be construed as conduct prejudicial to the administration of the business of the courts, says Ashley London at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
-
Lights, Camera, Ethics? TV Lawyers Tend To Set Bad Example
Though fictional movies and television shows portraying lawyers are fun to watch, Hollywood’s inaccurate depictions of legal ethics can desensitize attorneys to ethics violations and lead real-life clients to believe that good lawyers take a scorched-earth approach, says Nancy Rapoport at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
-
Accountant-Owned Law Firms Could Blur Ethical Lines
KPMG’s recent application to open a legal practice in Arizona represents the first overture by an accounting firm to take advantage of the state’s relaxed law firm ownership rules, but enforcing and supervising the practice of law by nonattorneys could prove particularly challenging, says Seth Laver at Goldberg Segalla.
-
AI Will Soon Transform The E-Discovery Industrial Complex
Todd Itami at Covington discusses how generative artificial intelligence will reshape the current e-discovery paradigm, replacing the blunt instrument of data handling with a laser scalpel of fully integrated enterprise solutions — after first making e-discovery processes technically and legally harder.