Effective October 1, 2010, the New York Insurance Department (the “Department”) has authority to review health insurance rate requests before they go into effect.   Before this “prior approval” authority went into effect, health insurers could simply increase their rates by filing with the Department and notifying customers of the change under a system known as “file and use.” …
Read More NYID Implements “Prior Approval” of Health Insurance Rates

Reversing a district court holding to the contrary, the First Circuit has declared that Massachusetts public policy does not prohibit D&O carriers from insuring against damages allegedly incurred by one class of shareholders as a result of an unfair benefit conferred on another class of shareholders.  Rather, the Court held that the terms of the policy had to be given their plain and ordinary meaning.  The  Court then remanded the case for an allocation proceeding. …
Read More First Circuit Remands D&O Coverage Dispute for Allocation

This updates our May 13, 2010 posting.  On October 25, 2010, the New Jersey Assembly passed A.2360 (the “Bill”) by a vote of 77-0, which would permit a captive insurance market to exist in New Jersey.  The Bill is based largely on Vermont’s captive insurance bill, which is generally viewed as the state model with the best design for the captive insurance market so far. …
Read More Captive Bill Passed By New Jersey Assembly; Next Stop New Jersey Senate

The low-income housing tax credit (“LIHTC”) market has seen a surge in investments by insurance companies over the last year.  The increased interest began in the fourth quarter of 2009 when yields on new LIHTC funds started to rise significantly, exceeding 10% after tax. …
Read More Recent Surge in the LIHTC Equity Market

A divided Court of Appeals of Kentucky recently held that an insured was continually covered under two back-to-back “claims-made” insurance policies issued by the same insurer even though a claim was made against the insured during one policy period, and not reported to the insurer until fourteen months later, during the second policy period. …
Read More Divided Kentucky Court of Appeals Relaxes Claims Made and Reported Requirements When Consecutive Policies Are Issued by the Same Insurer

The New York Times and its reporter Ron Nixon (collectively the “Times”) brought an action pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (the “Act”) against the United States Treasury in the New York Southern District court.  The Times sought to compel the Treasury Department to release the names of individuals who had been granted licenses by the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) to conduct business in or with foreign countries that would otherwise be unlawful under OFAC’s economic sanctions programs. …
Read More New York Court Compels Treasury Department to Release Identity of OFAC Licensees

In William McIlroy Swindon Ltd & Rannoch Investments Ltd v Quinn Insurance Ltd [2010] EWHC 2448 (TCC), the High Court was asked to consider, as a preliminary issue, when a dispute could be said to have arisen for the purposes of an arbitration clause that provided that any dispute as to the insurer’s liability was to be referred to arbitration within nine months, failing which the claim would be deemed to have been abandoned. …
Read More UK: High Court Provides Clarity on Time Limits in Arbitration Clauses

Inez Tenenbaum, the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, has asked China to help persuade its drywall manufacturers to cooperate in assisting U.S. homeowners fix their homes. …
Read More Chinese Drywall – U.S. Product Safety Chief Seeks Chinese Help With Drywall Fix