On June 21, Allstate Insurance announced that it settled a post-trial legal dispute with its insured, Robert Weiss, in a significant Hurricane Katrina-related damages case. 

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Read More Allstate Settles Post-Trial Legal Dispute In First Louisiana Wind vs. Water Dispute Trial

The Florida Legislature created the Task Force on Citizens Property Insurance Claims Handling and Resolution during a special session in 2007.  Citizens Property Insurance Company, Florida’s state sponsored insurer, experienced significant difficulties in handling the deluge of claims from the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons. 

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Read More Florida Legislature Creates Task Force on Citizens Property Insurance Claims Handling

On June 20, 2007, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division reaffirmed that New Jersey Courts do not consider a Service of Suit Clause in an insurance policy to constitute an exclusive forum selection clause in favor of the insured. 

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Read More Service of Suit Clause Not an Exclusive Forum Selection Clause Under New Jersey Law

An intermediate New York State appellate court held late last year that there was a question of fact whether a component of an SEC settlement that was specifically labeled “disgorgement” actually constituted the kind of disgorgement that courts deem uninsurable as a matter of public policy. 

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Read More Does an SEC Settlement Constitute Uninsurable Disgorgement?

On June 25 and for the second time in nine months, the House  unanimously passed H.R. 1065, the Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act of 2007.  The bill establishes national standards on how states may regulate and tax surplus lines insurers and also sets national standards concerning the regulation of reinsurance. …
Read More House Passes Nonadmitted and Reinsurance Reform Act

Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company recently released a new insurance coverage product for the video game development industry.  The policies will insure video game producers in a similar manner as policies that insure television and film producers. 

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Read More Insurance Company Provides New Video Game Development Coverage

On June 5, 2007, a New York State Court located in Manhattan ruled that various products liability claims relating to ExxonMobil Corporation’s defective resin and lubricant products were multiple “occurrences” under liability insurance policies issued to ExxonMobil by Lloyd’s of London. 

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Read More Defective Products Claims Against ExxonMobil Deemed Multiple “Occurrences” Under New York Law

On June 20th, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) approved a proposal that, if ratified, could allow foreign companies doing business in the United States to choose between filing data using international financial reporting standards (“IFRS”) or the U.S. generally accepted accounting procedures (“GAAP”).  This change would bring the U.S. closer to other major financial centers that currently welcome IFRS. 

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Read More SEC Proposes Changes to Foreign Company Accounting Rules

On June 21, 2007, the Supreme Court issued a significant decision for securities litigators and D&O insurers that eliminated a circuit split over the interpretation of a key pleading requirement of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (the “PSLRA”). 

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Read More The Supreme Court Defines the PSLRA’s “Strong Inference” Standard