Business Insurance

COVID case filings plateau in June

Case filings citing COVID-19 keywords increased in March and April, leveled off in May and plateaued in June, says a report by a legal analytics firm.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Survey tracks marijuana use before, after drug-screening

Thirty-five percent of marijuana users abstain from cannabis at least a month before a pre-employment drug test, while 28% return to using the drug “immediately or one day” post-test, according to survey results released Friday by New York-based Heal...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Berkley unit must defend construction firm

A W.R. Berkley Corp. unit has a duty to defend a construction firm charged with defectively designing and constructing homes, said a federal appeals court Thursday, in affirming a lower court ruling.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Rhode Island lawmakers pass firefighter cancer presumption bill

Rhode Island lawmakers passed two bills Thursday that make changes to the state’s workers compensation system, one of which would assume that firefighters diagnosed with cancer acquired it on the job.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Most Nevada businesses comply with COVID guidelines

Nevada health and safety inspectors found that about 88% of the businesses it visited Monday are following state COVID-19 compliance measures.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Wealthy Tennessee family flying high on philanthropy

A well-known wealthy Tennessee family whose patriarch founded the Pilot Corp. chain of convenience stores known as Pilot Flying J announced this week that it is giving $900,000 to a local school district to purchase insurance for Chromebooks.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Companies fined for fatal trench collapse at wind farm

Three companies have been fined more than a half-million dollars in connection with a January trench collapse at a wind farm site near Rainier, Washington, that killed one worker and seriously injured another, the Washington State Department of Labor...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Amynta acquires surety operations of Aspen Insurance

Amynta Group has acquired the surety operations of Aspen Insurance, the insurance segment of Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd., and will form a strategic partnership with Crum & Forster to write surety as part of the deal, Amynta said in a statement Frid...

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

The BI Top 10: Week of July 13, 2020

Comings and goings at major insurers and brokers have been much in the news this week, with particular interest in the early moves in a multiyear realignment at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Mount Merapi likely to erupt following recent quakes

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency of Indonesia has warned of a potential eruption of Mount Merapi volcano in Central Java following a series of earthquakes that hit the surrounding regions.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Cartier maker's sales plummet amid outbreak

Swiss luxury goods maker Compagnie Financiere Richemont SA's sales fell nearly 50% to around €2 billion ($2.3 billion) in the quarter ended June as the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented levels of disruption.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Heavy rains cause widespread damage in Italy

Heavy rains and flash floods on July 15 caused widespread damage and disruption across the Italian city of Palermo.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

600 flights cancelled as new virus cases emerge

Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region cancelled more than 600 flights on July 17, or more than 80% of the day's total, as reports of 10 new coronavirus positive cases fueled concerns of a potential outbreak.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

5.9-magnitude quake hits Panama

An earthquake of magnitude 5.9 struck near Coiba island in Panama on July 16.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

NN Group to enter Romania's insurance market

Dutch insurer NN Group NV plans to enter the nonlife insurance market in Romania.

Posted: Jul 17, 2020

Williams-Sonoma to pay $1M fine for made-in-USA claims

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that home products and kitchen wares company Williams-Sonoma Inc. will pay a $1 million fine to the agency for making for making false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims that certain of its products...

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Investors sue Deutsche Bank, CEO in wake of Epstein fine

Investors are suing Deutsche Bank and its CEO Christian Sewing, alleging the bank made false and misleading statements before it agreed to pay a $150 million fine for compliance failures linked to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Rejected Bridgewater trade secrets claim started as a guess: ruling

A senior Bridgewater Associates LP executive was only making a guess that former employees used trade secrets to compete against the world's largest hedge fund firm, according to an arbitration ruling made public on Thursday that rejected the firm's...

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Rideshare says no to carpooling in legal matters

Rival ride-hailing companies Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. have virtually the same business model and are both being sued by the State of California over their classification of drivers as independent contractors.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Truist Insurance Holdings’ organic growth down sharply

Truist Insurance Holdings’ organic revenue growth dropped to 2.1% in the second quarter from 11.6% in year-earlier period, parent company Truist Financial Corp. reported Thursday.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Tech securities class-action filings surge in 2019

Securities class-action filings involving technology companies increased by more than half in 2019, says a research report.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Hartford reports jump in estimated Q2 profits

The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said Wednesday it estimates it will report second-quarter 2020 net income of $463 million, which would be a 24.5% increase over its comparable 2019 results, despite an estimated $251 million of pretax COVID-...

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Microcaptives fall off IRS’ ‘Dirty Dozen’ tax evasion roll

For the first time since 2014, microcaptives were not included in the annual IRS list of “tax scams,” but the agency said it will continue to raise concerns about the vehicles.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Church wins dispute with insurer over hurricane damages

A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling and held in favor of a Georgia church in a dispute with its insurer over damages allegedly caused by 2021’s Hurricane Matthew.

Posted: Jul 16, 2020

Oregon’s SAIF will pay out $6.5 million to contractor policyholders

Oregon’s State Accident Insurance Fund Corp. will pay out more than $6.5 million to 639 companies that participated in its joint workers compensation program during 2018-2019 with Associated General Contractors Oregon, the nonprofit workers comp prov...

Posted: Jul 16, 2020