Insurance Journal

Keyes Acquires Three Florida Firms

Keyes Coverage, a rapidly growing Florida insurance brokerage, has acquired three firms: Bill and Sheila Gaylor Insurance, based in Melbourne, Florida; My Florida Insurance Broker, in Vero Beach; and Brian Laudanno Insurance in Coral Springs. It&#821...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

Florida’s Reform Bill Means New Deadlines for Insurers, Insureds, Starting This Week

Senate Bill 2A, enacted into law in December, gave Florida property insurers some major relief on litigation costs. But it also required a number of consumer-friendly actions from carriers and sets new timetables on claims, starting this week, the Fl...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

PLUS Panelists Warn Insurers Not to Get Comfortable Riding the Cyber Rollercoaster

Jeremy Gittler, practice leader and head of Cyber Americas at AXA XL, thinks of the cyber insurance industry as a rollercoaster. He says that after several years of turbulence with the advent of more sophisticated ransomware, the market is slowly &#8...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

New York EMS Workers Settle Suit With City Over Media Interviews

Four New York City ambulance workers who said they were disciplined for speaking to the media during the harrowing, early months of the COVID-19 pandemic have reached a settlement in their free speech lawsuit against the fire department and the &#823...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

Families Sue Over Covid-19 Deaths at Chelsea Veterans Home

The families of three residents of a veterans’ care facility in Massachusetts who died after contracting COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic say in federal lawsuit that the deaths were “premature and preventable” and the resu...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

Family Hurt in Helicopter Crash Suing Nevada Firm

Four family members from Australia who were injured during a crash-landing of a sightseeing helicopter in Southern Nevada in December have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. seeking more than $400,000 in damages from the tour operator. Las Vegas-based Papil...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

Shipping Companies Reach $97M Settlement in California Oil Spill

Shipping companies will pay nearly $97 million to settle a lawsuit with a pipeline operator over a 2021 oil spill off the coast of Southern California, the pipeline company said Wednesday. Amplify Energy, the Houston-based company that operates the p...

Posted: Mar 03, 2023

Meta’s Record Privacy Settlement Spurs Dispute Over State Claims

Meta Platforms Inc. is wrong to say its $725 million settlement of a lawsuit claiming Facebook illegally shared user data with a controversial research firm protects it from similar claims brought by New Mexico, attorneys for the US state said. &#823...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

SoCal Storms, Back-to-Back Hurricanes in South Central Part of New Normal?

A new AM Best commentary on the latest winter storm to hit Southern California drives home the growing risk and the financial volatility that weather-related losses pose for the insurance industry. According to the commentary, titled “Changing...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

White House Releases New National Cybersecurity Strategy

The White House announced a new national cybersecurity strategy meant to make the digital ecosystem more resilient, including a more aggressive stance against malicious cyber actors and shifting responsibility to “organizations that are most ca...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Hub Acquires Louisiana’s Dwight W. Andrus Insurance

Hub International Limited announced that it has acquired the assets of Dwight W. Andrus Insurance Inc., Dwight Andrus & Richard Insurance, Inc., and DAI Shreve, LLC (Dwight Andrus Insurance). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquart...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Ohio Senators Prepare Rail Safety Bill After Norfolk Southern Crash

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – Railroads like the one involved in this month’s fiery crash and toxic chemical release in Ohio would be subject to a series of new federal safety regulations and financial consequences under legislation being introdu...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Long-Lost Ship Found in Lake Heron

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) – Even for the Thunder Bay area, a perilous swath of northern Lake Huron off the Michigan coast that has devoured many a ship, the Ironton’s fate seems particularly cruel. The 191-foot (58-meter) cargo vessel col...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

World Insurance Adds New Jersey’s Katz/Pierz Agency to Its Team

Broker World Insurance Associates reports that it has acquired the business of Katz/Pierz of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Katz/Pierz was founded in 1987 by Aaron Katz and Donald Pierz. The agency serves profes...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Georgia House Votes to Raise Workers’ Comp Benefits, Still Lower than Other States

The Georgia House of Representatives voted this week to raise the maximum workers’ compensation benefit amounts and to increase the maximum payout to dependent spouses. House Bill 480, sponsored by Rep. Lehman Franklin, R-Statesboro, and others...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

People Moves: AXA XL Adds to U.S. Mid-Market Team; Leftwich Joins Zurich to Grow ESG Services; Mace...

AXA XL Adds to U.S. Mid-Market Team AXA XL Insurance continues to build out its U.S. Mid-Market business with the recent addition of Bennett Turner as head of strategy and operations and Christopher Fallon, head of analytics. Turner joins AXA …

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

$1 Million Settlement in Class Action over Immigration Raid at Tenn. Meat Plant

A federal judge has approved a settlement of more than $1 million in a class action lawsuit that challenged a federal immigration raid at an eastern Tennessee meatpacking plant where about 100 people were arrested. The settlement approved by U.S. &#8...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

New York City Agrees to $6M Settlement Over Police Response to George Floyd Protests

About 320 people arrested during a George Floyd protest in the Bronx on June 4, 2020, and who claim the police used excessive force and violated their civil rights, will each receive about $21,500 under a settlement proposal agreed to …

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Root Inc. Says CFO ‘Terminated for Cause’

About one year into his employment with Root Inc. and a week after he helped the company report fourth-quarter earnings, Chief Financial Officer Robert Bateman has been fired for violating company policies. According to a filing with the U.S. Securit...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

NC Senate Advances Bill to Stiffen Penalties for Attacks on Utility Stations

Nearly three months after attacks on electrical substations caused a dayslong power outage in central North Carolina, a state Senate committee advanced legislation Tuesday that would stiffen penalties for intentionally damaging utility equipment. The...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Florida Injury Attorney who Used LOPs Charged with Stealing $850,000 from Clients

A Tampa-area personal injury attorney, once active in auto accident, rideshare and other insurance claims litigation, has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of money laundering and grand theft. The Pinellas County Sheriff said that attorn...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Kobe Bryant Family Settles Photo Lawsuit in California for $28.5M

The family of the late Kobe Bryant has agreed to a $28.5 million settlement with Los Angeles County to resolve the remaining claims in a lawsuit over deputies and firefighters The figure includes a newly agreed upon payment from the …

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Ex-Cardinal Cites Dementia In Asking Court to Dismiss Sex Assault Case

Lawyers for former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick filed a motion this week to dismiss a case charging him with sexually assaulting a boy decades ago, saying the 92-year-old once-powerful American prelate has dementia and is not competent...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Fidelis Insurance Holdings Submits Draft Registration With SEC for Proposed IPO

Bermuda-based Fidelis Insurance Holdings Ltd. announced it has submitted a draft registration statement on with the Securities and Exchange Commission, relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common shares. The number of common shares t...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023

Russia Accuses West of ‘Shamelessly Burying’ Black Sea Grain Deal

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the West of “shamelessly burying” the Black Sea grain initiative that facilitates the export of Ukraine’s agricultural products from its southern ports, the RIA Novosti news...

Posted: Mar 02, 2023