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Insurers have a duty to defend Nokia Inc. against several class action lawsuits filed nationwide alleging that radio frequency radiation from wireless phones caused biological injury, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday. The decision in Zurich American Insurance Co., Federal Insurance Co., and National Union Fire Insurance Co. vs. Nokia Inc. is troublesome for insurers in cases beyond those involving cell phones, said Randy Maniloff, a partner at White and Williams L.L.P. in Philadelphia. The ruling is a setback for insurers because the court said headsets demanded by plaintiffs suing the cell phone maker constitute damages. The insurers are therefore responsible for… Read More »Insurers Must Defend Cell Phone Maker: Court

A proposed federal rule that would grant immunity from product liability lawsuits to drug and medical device makers that fail to warn about their products’ dangerous side effects on certain consumers has drawn objections from a trial lawyers group. The Washington-based American Assn. for Justice yesterday filed an objection with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its wording of a preamble to a proposed agency rule on warning-label requirements. The preamble would pre-empt state product liability lawsuits by women who are pregnant or breast-feeding, even if a warning label fails to disclose the dangerous side-effects for those women if… Read More »Trial Lawyers Protest Warning-Label Rule

Twelve people have now died out of 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to deli meats produced at a plant owned by Maple Leaf Foods Inc., Canadian health officials said Monday. There are another 29 suspected cases of listeriosis, officials told reporters, and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government expected more cases in coming days. Maple Leaf Foods, one of Canada’s biggest meat processors, had said it hoped to reopen the Toronto plant associated with the outbreak on Tuesday, but health officials said they will test and hold all meat produced there until they are satisfied it is… Read More »12 Dead in Canada Food Poisoning Outbreak

Surplus Lines Results Remain Strong, Despite Heightened Competition  Surplus lines insurers continued to outperform the property/casualty industry in underwriting and operating performance in 2007, despite the softening market and more aggressive competition. Heightened competition along with the turbulent market, however, caused a slight deterioration in underwriting profitability that led to a decline in the industry’s net income. The impact of the softening market caused an 8.7 percent drop in net premiums written in 2007 for professional surplus lines insurers. Absent a catastrophe that curtails the incursion of standard market insurers and the new offshore market, the surplus lines industry’s market… Read More »Strong Results for Surplus Lines

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has signed an ordinance, believed to be the first of its kind for a municipality, that will require employers to offer employees at least one of three commuter benefit options. Under the ordinance, which is intended to help reduce San Francisco’s 2012 greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% from 1990 levels, employers will have a choice of three transit options to offer to employees: Set up a program under which employees can make pretax contributions to the federal legal limit of $115 a month to pay for mass transit expenses. That option is expected… Read More »Mayor Signs San Francisco Commuter Mandate

The number of people without health insurance in the United States fell slightly even as employment-based coverage continued its long, steady decline, the Bureau of the Census reported Tuesday. Last year, the number of Americans without health insurance fell to 45.7 million, down slightly from 47 million in 2006, while the percentage of the population without coverage dropped to 15.3% from 15.8%. That drop in the number of uninsured is attributable to the growth in coverage provided through government programs such as Medicaid, which offset the decline in employment-based coverage. Last year, the percentage of the population covered through government… Read More »Number of Uninsured Falls Slightly

New forms of private-public partnerships are needed, particularly for developing nations, to deal with risks and costs related to climate change, Swiss Reinsurance Co.’s chairman said in a presentation Monday. Speaking at the International Disaster and Risk Conference in Davos, Switzerland, Peter Forstmoser said the impact of hazardous events continues to rise, driven by interacting forces, including global warming, population growth, density of assets and aging infrastructure. Developing countries likely will bear the highest share of the costs needed to adapt to climate change, he said. By 2030, it is estimated that these costs will amount to 49 billion Swiss… Read More »Swiss Re estimates costs to deal with climate change

California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner has proposed regulations that would make green auto insurance option available for California consumers. If implemented, pay-as-you-drive auto insurance would allow motorists to more accurately pay for the coverage they need, by linking their premium more closely with the number of miles they drive. Any incentive like this to get people to drive fewer miles will help reduce greenhouse gases and vehicle accidents, the Commissioner indicated. “I am thrilled to pave the way for California drivers to obtain insurance that is more environmentally friendly and more accurately reflects driving habits,” Poizner said. “As a strong… Read More »Pay-As-You-Drive Regulations – California

A new study on teen driving habits and safety found that 59 percent of teens always buckled up in the driver seat but only 42 percent always wore seat belts as passengers. However, only 38 percent of all teens in the study reported always buckling up as both drivers and passengers. Researchers from the Meharry-State Farm Alliance at Meharry Medical College say the lack of seat belt use by teen passengers is a big problem. “Because seat belts can reduce the risk of injury and death in crashes by more than 50 percent, there is a critical need for interventions… Read More »Less Then 50% of Teen Passengers Wearing Seat Belts

Yes… Lighter Vehicles Could Mean Higher Insurance Costs… The cost of auto injury claims involving lighter-weight vehicles tends to be higher than the cost of claims involving heavy vehicles, according to new research from the Insurance Research Council (IRC). The average claims payment involving lighter weight vehicles is more than 14 percent higher than it is for claims involving heavier vehicles, the researchers said. Injuries in lighter vehicles are more likely to be more serious, require hospitalization and keep people from returning to work right away, they found. The insurance research group said its findings may have implications for those… Read More »Higher Gas – Higher Insurance Costs?