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The first criminal trial  arising out of the stock options backdating scandals, involving Brocade Communications Systems, Inc.’s former CEO, Gregory Reyes, began on Monday, June 18, 2007 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  Reyes is accused of intentionally falsifying board meeting minutes and disseminating false financial statements in order to conceal the backdating of stock options. 

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Read More The Brocade Criminal Trial: Former Employee Testimony Damaging to Reyes

In 1992, in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, the Florida Legislature enacted F.S. § 215.555, which created the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (the “Fund”).  The Fund is a trust fund, established to reimburse insurers, who write covered policies under F.S. § 215.555(2)(c), for a portion of their catastrophic hurricane related losses.

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Read More The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund

Florida’s First District Court of Appeal recently decided that, when determining whether the structure is a “total loss” under Florida’s former Valued Policy Law (“VPL”), a court could consider whether the cost of repairing the building would exceed its value. 

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Read More Florida’s Valued Policy Law – When Determining Whether Building is “Total Loss,” Court May Consider Whether Cost of Repair Exceeds Value

A Florida appellate court recently swam against a tide of decisions that have eroded the attorney-client privilege in bad faith litigation. 

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Read More Florida Appellate Court Holds That Injured Party Suing Tortfeasor’s Insurer for Bad Faith is Not Entitled to Privileged Communications Between Insured, Insurer, and their Joint or Separate Counsel

A New York jury recently found a cell phone distributor’s risk manager liable for his alleged role in a scheme to commit securities fraud.  According to the SEC’s allegations, the scheme involved the cell phone distributor’s purchase of a multi-year finite risk insurance policy, which enabled the company to spread a loss over several years.  

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Read More SEC Prevails in Fraud Case Against Risk Manager

On May 30, the U.S Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that an insured’s broad allegations of pollution over a course of decades are enough to trigger a liability insurer’s duty to defend environmental contamination lawsuits. 

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Read More First Circuit Finds Flexibility in “Sudden and Accidental” Pollution Exception

On May 29th, Eliot Spitzer, Governor of New York, signed an executive order creating the New York Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services.  The Commission’s objective is to streamline state regulation of an industry that has become increasingly complex over the past decade. 

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Read More Eliot Spitzer Establishes Commission to Modernize Insurance Regulation in New York