Claims Journal

Deaf Woman Sues Michigan Hospital For Not Providing Interpreter

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A deaf woman sued a Michigan hospital, alleging that it violated federal laws by failing to provide her with a sign language interpreter when she was transferred to the hospital last fall. Christine Ketola is accusing …

Posted: Apr 17, 2020

Coronavirus: Hold Music, Noise Wreck Court Hearing by Phone

ATLANTA — It was a court hearing gone awry in the time of the coronavirus: Legal arguments in a lawsuit over gun carry licenses were repeatedly interrupted by hold music, background noise and failures of the mute button. And it …

Posted: Apr 17, 2020

FBI Official Says Foreign Hackers Have Targeted COVID-19 Research

A senior cybersecurity official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday that foreign government hackers have broken into companies conducting research into treatments for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus....

Posted: Apr 17, 2020

Hacking Against Corporations Surges as Workers Take Computers Home

SAN FRANCISCO — Hacking activity against corporations in the United States and other countries more than doubled by some measures last month as digital thieves took advantage of security weakened by pandemic work-from-home policies, researchers said....

Posted: Apr 17, 2020

Business News: Pacesetter, Agero, Mitchell

Pacesetter Teams with OnSeen and Hover Pacesetter Claims Service, OnSeen Inc. and Hover have teamed up to launch a claims management system that virtually connects all parties involved in the claim adjustment workflow through smartphones. The LiveCla...

Posted: Apr 17, 2020

Chubb CEO Warns Retroactive Measures Would ‘Bankrupt’ Industry

Chubb Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Evan Greenberg has a stark warning for policy makers pushing insurers to pay out some uncovered business-interruption losses. “The insurance industry is a fundamental part of the economic plumbing of this country,”...

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

No Hugs Or Handshakes: Pandemic Complicates Storm Relief

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — For people who lost homes to the deadly tornadoes that rampaged across the South, there are no comforting hugs from volunteers or handshakes from politicians. For homeless families, there are no Red Cross shelters, only hotel rooms...

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

More States Introduce COVID-19 Business-Interruption Bills

New Jersey was the first state to propose a bill that would mandate insurers cover COVID-19-related losses under their business interruption policies, and the insurance industry was quick to express its concern. But that hasn’t stopped some states fr...

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

A Year After Blaze, Notre Dame Restoration Halted by Virus

PARIS — The Cathedral of Notre Dame stands crippled and alone, locked in a dangerous web of twisted scaffolding one year after a cataclysmic fire gutted its interior, toppled its famous spire and horrified the world. Some of the 40,000 …

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

Santa Fe Mom Says Overturned Bounce House Trapped Children

SANTA FE, N.M. — A Santa Fe woman is suing Meow Wolf after she says her children were injured when wind overturned the arts and entertainment company’s rented-bounce house. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports attorneys for Anita Vargas didn’t …

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

Individual Ashtrays, Hourly Disinfection: French Carmakers Eye Production Restart

PARIS — Peugeot-owner PSA and Renault are planning new safety measures in a push by France’s major industrial groups for a breakthrough with workers to reopen some factories before the government lifts its lockdown from mid-May, unions said. Japanese...

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

Tesla Can’t Duck Lawsuit Over Musk’s Take-Private Tweet

Tesla Inc. must face an investor lawsuit over Elon Musk’s notorious 2018 tweet about taking the electric car maker private. The ruling means Tesla will have to provide documents and other evidence to the plaintiffs as the case moves forward. …

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

Ukrainian Officials: Fires Out Near Chernobyl Nuclear Plant

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian emergency officials said Tuesday they have extinguished forest fires in the radiation-contaminated area near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but acknowledged that grass was still smoldering in some areas. Hundreds of fire...

Posted: Apr 16, 2020

Big Wheat Growers Are Starting to Hoard Supply

The wheat market is starting to get shaken up by the ,. Panic buying of food might have largely eased at grocery stores, but governments are beginning to get more serious about securing supplies of key staples like grains. From …

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

World Economy Working From Home Gets a Glimpse of the Virtual Future

The lockdown gripping much of the world economy has spurred a real-time stress test of the long-heralded digital future. Virtual brown bag lunches have replaced office gatherings; schools have rushed out internet-based learning; the International Mon...

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Lockdowns Cut Driving and Crashes, Bring Insurance Discounts

DETROIT — Interstates and city streets are empty and cars are quarantined in their owners’ garages, so consumer advocates argue that it only makes sense for auto insurance rates to reflect that. In the states of Washington and New York, …

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Companies Walk Legal Tightrope as Earnings Season Kicks Off

WASHINGTON — U.S. companies are grappling with how best to provide guidance on their earnings outlook as the novel coronavirus takes uncertainty to new heights and exposes them to potential shareholder lawsuits if forecasts prove misplaced. Measures...

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Amazon Fires Three Critics of Warehouse Conditions in Pandemic

Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday it had fired three critics of the company’s pandemic response for workplace violations, dismissals that drew sharp words from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and a labor coalition. The company on Friday fired two user exper...

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

As Coronavirus Empties Streets, Speeders Hit the Gas

NEW YORK — Empty roads in the United States and Europe are tempting drivers to go out and shift into high gear. From Los Angeles to New York, London and Berlin, coronavirus lockdowns have drained traffic from normally crowded roads. …

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Auto Claims Decline 40 to 50% as Consumers Stay Home, Snapsheet Says

Insurers are reporting a 40 to 50 percent drop in claims volume for personal auto and a 30 to 40 percent reduction for commercial auto due to the coronavirus pandemic, an executive for claims-automation provider Snapsheet said Tuesday. Chief Operatin...

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Viewpoint: Why Physician Scoring Is a Win for Insurers, Employers, Workers – and Physicians

We live in a society ruled by rankings. Websites are devoted to them; YouTube careers have been built based upon them. Which players we select for fantasy teams, where our kids go to college, who can be trusted for a …

Posted: Apr 15, 2020

Pipeline Operator Sues Chesapeake Energy Over Payment Dispute

Pipeline operator Glass Mountain LLC is suing troubled oil and gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp for allegedly defaulting on an oil transportation contract that had been renegotiated weeks earlier. Chesapeake, a shale gas pioneer, borrowed aggressi...

Posted: Apr 14, 2020

McDonald’s Faces Class Action Over ‘Pervasive Sexual Harassment’

McDonald’s Corp has been hit with a class action lawsuit accusing it of subjecting female employees in its corporate-owned fast-food restaurants in Florida to widespread sexual harassment. The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in Chicago, say...

Posted: Apr 14, 2020

North America Meat Plant Workers Fall Ill, Walk Off Jobs

At a Wayne Farms chicken processing plant in Alabama, workers recently had to pay the company 10 cents a day to buy masks to protect themselves from the new coronavirus, according to a meat inspector. In Colorado, nearly a third …

Posted: Apr 14, 2020

Get Ready for More, Longer Blackouts

By mid-Monday morning, storms sweeping north from the Gulf Coast had left more than 1.3 million out of power in the U.S. Under normal circumstances, this would have called for the mass mobilization of crews to get the lights back …

Posted: Apr 14, 2020