July 2008

The moderate earthquake that struck Los Angeles late Tuesday (July 29) morning at 11:42am PDT has not caused major damage or serious injury, according to early eyewitness reports and the Los Angeles Fire Department.Based on the latest available information on the seismic parameters of this event, insurance forecaster AIR Worldwide said it does not expect significant insured losses. The firm… Read More »Building Code Helps Minimize Losses from California Earthquake

Imagine you need to send letters containing personal information… Now imagine you sent it to a wrong address… The largest health insurer in Georgia has sent letters containing personal information to the wrong addresses, exposing more than 200,000 Georgians to possible identity theft. Do you have insurance coverage to cover a claim arising out of such operations? Ask you insurance… Read More »Claim Scenario

One auto insurance company is offering New Jersey motorists discounts of up to 60 percent if they install a high-tech monitoring device.The wireless devices will tell Progressive how many miles are driven, how fast people accelerate and hit the brakes.Under the pay-as-you-drive concept, good drivers will get discounts and lead foots could face surcharges as high as 9 percent.New Jersey… Read More »Pay-As-You-Drive Auto Insurance

Workers’ compensation laws have evolved and expanded since the beginning, but these are the roots of the modern American workers’ compensation system.This history begins a workers’ compensation series that will cover various topics and concepts surrounding the modern workers compensation system.Read full story

In an article on its web site (http://www.lloyds.com/), Lloyd’s looks at the increasing concerns over coverage for vacant properties. “As the economy worsens it’s expected that more and more businesses will fail, leaving commercial property owners possibly struggling to fill their factory and office space,” said the article.“Empty buildings are a magnet for potentials risks such as theft, vandalism and… Read More »Insuring Vacant Property – Lloyd’s Analyzes

Survey: Private Firms More Exposed to Liability Risks, But Less Protected More than one-third of U.S. businesses do not purchase any type of management or professional liability insurance. Yet, two out of three U.S. private companies have experienced some type of event related to management or professional liability in the past five years.The majority of survey participants do not purchase… Read More »Buy Insurance for Protection

American Guarantee & Liability Insurance Co. has filed a lawsuit against Payless ShoeSource Inc. in the U.S. District Court of Kansas, seeking a declaration that the $305 million in damages the discount shoe retailer recently incurred from a legal battle with adidas Group is not covered under its policy. New York-based American Guarantee & Liability, a subsidiary of Zurich Financial… Read More »Trademark and Copyright Infringment – Covered or Not?

Tuesday’s Los Angeles-area earthquake should not result in insured property losses of more than $100 million, catastrophe modeler EQECAT said in a note to its clients. Meanwhile, Boston-based AIR Worldwide Corp. said Wednesday that the quake should not result in significant insured losses, in large part because of California’s building codes. The U.S. Geological Survey said the magnitude 5.4 earthquake… Read More »Los Angelers EarthQuake – No Heavy Losses

A suicide sufficiently connected to an industrial injury is compensable under Nevada’s workers compensation system, the state’s highest court has ruled. State law barring family members from collecting workers comp benefits if a worker’s death resulted from a “willful intention to injure himself” does not apply when a “sufficient chain of causation is established,” the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in… Read More »Workers Comp Benefits for Suicide