United States

Subscribe to United States via RSS

By letter dated October 29, 2013, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater inquired with the Florida Office of Insurance (“OIR”) as to why insurance rates have not been reduced for many Florida homeowners given that reinsurers have lowered their rates. Atwater requested a response to the inquiry by December 18, 2013. …
Read More Insurance Regulators Launch Investigation into Lack of Premium Reductions for Florida Homeowners Given Reduced Costs in the Reinsurance Market

On October 25, 2013, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “Board”) applied for membership with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (“IAIS”), a voluntary membership organization of insurance supervisors and regulators from nearly 140 countries. The mission of the IAIS is to promote globally consistent supervision of the insurance industry. …
Read More The Federal Reserve Board Seeks to Cement its Status as a Global Regulator of Insurance; Applies for Membership with the International Association of Insurance Supervisors

On October 7, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, held that a liability insurer, in the absence of any demand or settlement offer from a third party claimant, need not initiate settlement negotiations or offer its policy limits, even where liability is clear and there is a substantial likelihood that the third party claimant’s recovery will exceed policy limits. …
Read More California Appellate Court Issues Bad Faith Duty to Settle Opinion

A Massachusetts federal court dismissed a coverage lawsuit against a liquor liability insurer, holding that the “supplementary payments” clause in its policy did not require the carrier to furnish a bond to discharge an attachment against the insured’s liquor license. The court agreed that, because the carrier had already paid out its entire limit of liability, it had no obligation to pay either pre-judgment interest or the cost of the bond. …
Read More Massachusetts Federal Court Dismisses Suit Seeking to Hold Carrier Liable for Cost of Bond After Exhaustion of Policy Limit

More major privacy and data protection developments are in the works in California, following three significant new laws reported here. On September 25, 2013, the California Secretary of State approved steps required to bring before state residents a ballot initiative entitled the Personal Privacy Protection Act (the “Act”). …
Read More CA Residents to Decide on Constitutional Privacy Rights

On September 25, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) released final guidance on how it intends to regulate mobile applications (“apps”). The guidance consists of a set of nonbinding recommendations that define what mobile apps meet the definition of a medical device and are therefore subject to FDA’s regulation as medical devices and what mobile apps fall outside the definition of a medical device. …
Read More Healthcare Update: FDA Releases Guidance on Mobile Medical Applications