A members’ meeting of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS) recently discussed two important Solvency II project’s draft Advices to the European Commission. 

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Read More EU: CEIOPS Meeting Discusses Draft Advice to European Commission on Key Solvency II Issues

On February 11, 2008, Judge Colleen Kotelly of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia appointed the Lerach, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins law firm as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in a securities class action arising out of Standard & Poor’s allegedly fraudulent rating of certain bonds collateralized by subprime mortgages. 

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Read More D.C. Federal Court Names Lead Counsel in Standard & Poor’s CMO Securities Class Action

As part of raising the proposed $1 billion Upstate Revitalization Fund in New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s Executive Budget, Spitzer has requested that surcharges on all automobile policies issued in New York be raised by $15; the current surcharge is $5. 

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Read More New York Governor Spitzer Proposes Additional $15 Fee On All Auto Policies

On February 12, 2008, the Michigan Senate voted 36-0 to amend the state’s Insurance Code to provide for the creation of captive insurance companies.  If passed by the Michigan House of Representatives and signed by the governor, the new legislation, S.B. 1061, would provide for the formation of captive insurance companies (“Captives”), special purpose financial captives (“SPFCs”) and protected cell insurance companies. 

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Read More Michigan Senate Passes Captive Bill

From time to time, we are asked about the prevalence of arbitration over litigation as a forum for resolving reinsurance disputes.  Vince Vitkowsky recently conducted a survey of the attorneys at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, LLP,  in both the US and England, as to to their experience. 

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Read More Reinsurance Arbitration Predominates

The recent decision in the staged trial of the conjoined actions of Standard Life Assurance Ltd v Oak Dedicated and others and Standard Life Assurance Ltd v (1) Aon Limited (formerly known as Aon Group Limited) (2) Reynolds Porter Chamberlain [2008] EWHC 222 (Comm) has endorsed previous authorities concerning the scope of brokers’ duties. 

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Read More The English High Court has Re-Addressed the Topic of Brokers’ Duties

In the case of Kylie Palmer v Estate of Kevin Palmer (deceased) and others [2008] EWCA Civ 46, the Court of Appeal has refused to overturn a decision forcing Royal Sun Alliance (RSA) to pay the opposing parties’ costs personally. The claim arose after a six year old girl was severely injured in an automobile accident. 

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Read More The English Court of Appeal has Forced an Insurer to Pay the Opposing Parties’ Costs Personally

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty (McCarty) announced this week that the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has filed an administrative complaint seeking to suspend the certificates of authority of numerous Allstate Companies to write new insurance policies in Florida. 

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Read More Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Files Formal Complaint to Suspend Allstate Companies’ Licenses

The Scottish Government has published a consultation paper on its proposal to introduce legislation before the summer recess in order to overturn the House of Lords’ 17 October 2007 decision (Rothwell v Chemical Insulating Company Ltd [2007] UKHL 39) that asymptomatic pleural plaques are not compensable (click here …
Read More The Scottish Government has Published a Consultation on the Impact of Reversing the House of Lord’s Pleural Plaques Judgment