More Insurance Coverage

  • January 29, 2025

    Workers Needed To Initiate Arbitration, Calif. Panel Says

    A group of workers needed to initiate arbitration in their proposed class action claiming an insurance company misclassified them as exempt employees after a trial court sent their claims out of court, a California state appellate panel ruled, flipping the lower court's decision reviving the suit.

  • 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.

Expert Analysis

  • No, Litigation Funders Are Not 'Fleeing' The District Of Del.

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    A recent study claimed that litigation funders have “fled” Delaware federal court due to a standing order requiring disclosure of third-party financing, but responsible funders have no problem litigating in this jurisdiction, and many other factors could explain the decline in filings, say Will Freeman and Sarah Tsou at Omni Bridgeway.

  • 5 E-Discovery Predictions For 2025 And Beyond

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    In the year to come, e-discovery will be shaped by new and emerging trends, from the adoption of artificial intelligence provisions in protective orders, to the proliferation of emojis as a source of evidence in contemporary litigation, say attorneys at Littler.

  • 7 Ways 2nd Trump Administration May Affect Partner Hiring

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    President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will likely have a number of downstream effects on partner hiring in the legal industry, from accelerated hiring timelines to increased vetting of prospective employees, say recruiters at Macrae.

  • E-Discovery Quarterly: Rulings On Custodian Selection

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    Several recent rulings make clear that the proportionality of additional proposed custodians will depend on whether the custodians have unique relevant documents, and producing parties should consider whether information already in the record will show that they have relevant documents that otherwise might not be produced, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • Religious Accommodation Lessons From $12.7M Vax Verdict

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    A Michigan federal jury’s recent $12.7 million verdict against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan starkly reminds employers of the risks they face when assessing employees’ religious accommodation requests, highlighting pitfalls to avoid and raising the opportunity to consider best practices to follow, say attorneys at Williams & Connolly.

  • Exploring Venue Strategy For Trump-Era Regulatory Litigation

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    Litigation will likely play a prominent role in shaping policy outcomes during the second Trump administration, and stakeholders have several tools at their disposal to steer regulatory litigation toward more favorable venues, say attorneys at Covington.

  • An Associate's Guide To Career Development In 2025

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    As the new year begins, associates at all levels should consider establishing career metrics, fostering key relationships and employing other specific strategies to help move through the complexities of the legal profession with confidence and emerge as trailblazers, say EJ Stern and Amanda George at Fractional Law Firm.

  • Making The Pitch To Grow Your Company's Legal Team

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    In a compressed economy, convincing the C-suite to invest in additional legal talent can be a herculean task, but a convincing pitch — supported by metrics and cost analyses — may help in-house counsel justify the growth of their team, say Elizabeth Smith and Roger Garceau at Major Lindsey.

  • Tax Court Should Update Framework For Defining Insurance

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    ​​​​​​​The U.S. Tax Court's unnecessary determination in Royalty Management Insurance v. Commissioner that a fraudulent transaction did not contain the hallmarks of a legitimate insurance transaction applies an outdated analysis that threatens the captive insurance sector and illustrates the need for a more modern framework to define true insurance, says Matthew Queen at the Queen Firm.

  • What 2024 Trends In Marketing, Comms Hiring Mean For 2025

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    The state of hiring in legal industry marketing, business development and communications over the past 12 months was marked by a number of trends — from changes in the C-suite to lateral move challenges — providing clues for what’s to come in the year ahead, says Ben Curle at Ambition.

  • 6 Changes I Would Make If I Ran A Law School

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    Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner identifies several key issues plaguing law schools and discusses potential solutions, such as opting out of the rankings game and mandating courses in basic writing skills.

  • Firms Still Have The Edge In Lateral Hiring, But Buyer Beware

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    Partner mobility data suggests that the third quarter of this year continued to be a buyer’s market, with the average candidate demanding less compensation for a larger book of business — but moving into the fourth quarter, firms should slow down their hiring process to minimize risks, say officers at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Note 3 Simple Types Of Legal Complexity

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    Cases can appear complex for several reasons — due to the number of issues, the volume of factual and evidentiary sources, and the sophistication of those sources — but the same basic technique can help lawyers tame their arguments into a simple and persuasive message, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

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