The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently denied an insurer’s motion to dismiss a False Claims Act suit based on subject matter and scienter arguments. 

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Read More Federal Court Denies Insurer’s Motion to Dismiss Whistleblower Suit

Brian Green, one of the coordinators of InsureReinsure.com, was invited to be a panelist at LegalTech 2009 to discuss InsureReinsure.com and web 2.0 generally. …
Read More Blog Coordinator Invited to Speak about InsureReinsure.com at Legal Technology Conference

Recently the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reduced an award of punitive damages by over two-thirds, holding that a 1:1 ratio between punitives and compensatory damages is the appropriate limit where the harm is purely economic and the compensatory damages award is substantial.  Jurinko v. Medical Protective Co., Nos. 06-3519 & 06-3666 (3rd Cir., December 24, 2008).  The court reduced the award from $6.25 million to just under $2 million. …
Read More Third Circuit Vastly Reduces Punitive Damages Award Against Insurer, Applies 1:1 Ratio

The FSA issued a statement on 15 January 2009, in response to the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s report into the regulation of Equitable Life. In this statement, the FSA accepted the report’s findings that appropriate standards of administration and regulation were not achieved, and therefore accepted the Ombudsman’s recommendation that individual policyholders that were affected by the maldministration should be compensated by the Government. The FSA apologised for its failings in the statement. 

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Read More UK: Government and FSA Responds to Ombudsman’s Enquiry into Equitable Life

Birmingham City Council v Rose Forde [2009] EWHC 12 (QB) concerned an appeal arising from the judgment of a Costs Judge regarding two conditional fee agreements used to fund litigation between Birmingham City Council (the Council) and Rose Forde, a Council tenant. 

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Read More UK: High Court Suggests That a Retrospective Success Fee in a Retrospective Conditional Fee Agreement May Not be Contrary to Public Policy

On January 23, 2009, Intel Corp. filed suit against American Guarantee and Liability Insurance Company (“AGLI”), in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that AGLI  owes a duty to defend Intel in its antitrust litigation with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (“AMD”). …
Read More Intel Commences Action Against Its Insurer for Coverage of Antitrust Litigation Under “Advertising Liability” Provision of Policy

On January 16, 2009, American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (“American Equity”) issued a press release announcing that it, together with a coalition of insurance companies and independent marketing organizations, filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit seeking to overturn Rule 151A adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). …
Read More Suit Filed to Overturn SEC Rule Classifying Indexed Annuities as Securities

On December 29, 2008, the New York Insurance Department’s (“NYID”) Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) issued an opinion setting forth its position with respect to NYID Circular Letter No. 27 (2008) (the “Circular Letter”) that addressed the issue of whether same-sex marriages from jurisdictions outside of New York are covered under group long-term disability, group short-term disability and group term life insurance issued in New York.  We previously reported here on the Circular Letter. …
Read More New York Insurance Department: Legally Married Same-Sex Couples Should be Recognized with Respect to Certain Types of Health and Term Life Insurance Issued Under New York Law

The Chairman of the FSA, Lord Adair Turner, gave a speech on 21 January 2009 setting out his views of  the causes of the current financial crisis and outlining the future of financial regulation. Although the speech was about banking regulation, the key areas of future regulatory focus – capital adequacy and liquidity – are likely also to be applied to insurers. …
Read More UK: FSA Chairman Outlines Future of Financial Regulation

Florida’s largest private homeowners insurer, State Farm Florida, today informed the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) that it will stop selling homeowners and other property-related insurance policies in the state.  The company’s withdrawal affects approximately 1.2 million customers who currently have State Farm Florida homeowners, renters, condominium unit owners, personal liability, boats, and/or personal articles insurance.  It does not, however, affect State Farm Florida’s 2.8 million automobile insurance customers. …
Read More State Farm — Florida’s Largest Provider of Homeowners and Property Related Insurance — Is Withdrawing from the Market