A joint study conducted by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research recently concluded that there were 166 securities class action lawsuits filed in federal courts nationwide last year. This is a 43% increase from 2006.
Read MoreAs we reported on here, in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v.Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to permit investor suits against third parties who engaged in deceptive acts that contributed to another party’s securities fraud, where the third parties had no duty to disclose their acts to the public, and where their deceptive acts were in fact not communicated to the public.
Read MoreOn January 7, 2007, Connecticut Commissioner of Insurance, Thomas R. Sullivan, issued Bulletin PC-03 (the “Bulletin”), announcing a one-year pilot program under which certain lines of commercial insurance will be exempt from state rate and form filing requirements.
Read MoreIn its December 4, 2007 decision in Smith v. Allstate Indemnity Co., the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that Allstate did not act in bad faith when it denied coverage for damage to Norris Edwards Smith’s home caused by storm surge during Hurricane Katrina.
Read MoreOn January 16, 2008, at the end of a two-month trial, a federal jury in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona found that Apollo Group, Inc. (“Apollo”) and two former Apollo executives violated federal securities laws by fraudulently misleading its investors about its recruitment policies.
Read MoreToday, former Brocade CEO Greg Reyes was sentenced to 21 months in prison and ordered to pay a $15 million fine in the first criminal trial to arise out of the stock options backdating scandal.
Read MoreIn Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co, et al. v. Ace American Reinsurance Co., et al., No. 17625 (Sup. Ct. Conn. Dec. 25, 2007), the Connecticut Supreme Court found a “common cause” provision in a reinsurance treaty to be ambiguous for purposes of whether multiple asbestos claims could be aggregated as a single occurrence, reversing the lower court’s decision granting summary judgment to the defendant reinsurers.
Read MoreAs we reported here, Florida is dealing with several issues concerning its approved rates for property insurance. Last Thursday, several property insurers were subpoenaed by Florida lawmakers to provide testimony before Florida’s Senate Banking and Finance Committee as to why homeowner’s insurance rates in that state have not declined a year after the state’s hurricane insurance pool was doubled.
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