As Body Shops Continue to Attack Contracted Labor Rates, Third-Party Claims...
Auto insurers control the cost of collision repairs with direct repair programs, featuring networks of repair shops that agree to discount labor rates and other charges as a trade-off for customer...
View ArticleOregon Supreme Court Addresses Attorneys’ Fees for Appellate Proceedings in...
Strawn v. Farmers Insurance Co. of Oregon is a class action that challenged the insurer’s use of automated bill review systems to determine the reasonableness of medical claims submitted under the...
View ArticleFederal Judges in Brooklyn are Making it Easier to Pursue Fraud Claims...
I was bawn in Williamsboig,” he says. “An’ I can tell you t’ings about dis town you neveh hoid of.” – Thomas Wolfe The Eastern District of New York, which includes the New York City Boroughs of...
View ArticleAsk the Public Adjustor: Covering Life with Wisdom*
Dear Public Adjustor: Mom taught me not to lie, so I can’t say I’ve had a good time in school. My family is more religious than most, which made it hard for me to fit in. Plus, I matured later than...
View ArticleIf it Races like a Tortoise: Connecticut Deconstructs a Policyholder
From Zeno of Elea to the Washington Nationals, images of racing have ceaselessly troubled Western thought. But as ancient metaphysics has given way to philosophy of language, the questions we ask...
View ArticleCarhops and Cash Deposit Bags: Insurer Skates From the “Dual Purpose” Doctrine
For many, Sonic Drive-In restaurants stir thoughts of juicy burgers, neon-blue sodas, ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll, and roller-skating carhops. Recently, however, in Hudson Specialty Insurance Company v. Brash...
View ArticleCalifornia Bans Use of Price Optimization
Yesterday California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones became the latest voice in a growing chorus of state insurance regulators who condemn the use of “Price Optimization” as a mechanism for adjusting...
View ArticleCooperate, Or Else
Cooperation is key. Or so says the 10th Circuit at least, in addressing an appeal from a district court’s dismissal of an insured’s action in which he failed to cooperate with his insurer’s claim...
View ArticleChange is in the Air: New Jersey Justices Hold Their Noses While Siding with...
On February 18, 2015, the Supreme Court of New Jersey issued separate opinions in two first-party, uninsured motorist cases against the same auto insurer. Plaintiffs in both cases alleged that the...
View ArticleTelematics and Usage-Based Insurance: Benefits, Challenges, and the Future
The NAIC’s Center for Insurance Policy and Research (CIPR) released a white paper in March 2015 providing an excellent overview of the brave new world of automobile “telematics” data and their use in...
View ArticleKeeping it Basic: NJ Supreme Court Limits Amount Owed to Innocent Third Parties
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that an automobile insurer must pay an innocent third party the contracted $10,000 amount of basic coverage following an auto accident involving the insured’s...
View ArticleSecond Circuit’s Policy Language Interpretation Leaves Insurer Down in the Dumps
So this dump truck can’t make it through an overpass on I-90; the crash knocks the dump box off the truck and into the road. Five minutes later (or 30 seconds, if you believe some people), along comes...
View ArticleWhen is a Fellow Employee a “Fellow Employee”?
The Eleventh Circuit recently reversed a district court’s decision to enforce an insurance policy’s “fellow employee” exclusion on the ground that the employee was acting outside the scope of his...
View ArticleToo Little, Too Late: The Harsh Bright Line of Suit Limitation Provisions
Approximately twenty percent of Americans have been classified as chronic procrastinators, which means one in five policyholders faces a potential problem when suing for coverage. While the statute of...
View ArticleFlorida Makes The World Safer for Subrogation
As insurers show increasing interest in pursuing recovery opportunities after paying claims, they face increased exposure to litigation hazards associated with the debt collection industry. A recent...
View ArticleIn Examinations Under Oath, Friends Must Let Friends Testify Alone
The cooperation provisions in most personal lines insurance policies require policyholders to sit for Examinations Under Oath (“EUO”) to answer questions about the validity of a claim. What if the...
View ArticleIn Price Optimization Class Actions, Courts Defer To Regulators—But Still...
In recent weeks, two courts ruled on motions to dismiss the first wave of class action lawsuits based on alleged price optimization of auto insurance rates. In both Stevenson v. Allstate Ins. Co., No....
View ArticleYour Online Insurance Sales Can Land You In Court
Like it or not, insurers now need to market and sell consumer products online, but recent cases show that the legal framework for those activities is still being assembled. Some courts are distinctly...
View ArticleStep-Up, Insurer! Your Step-Down Provision Is Not Triggered
“Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.” — Frank Pierson Where an automobile policy covers someone other than the named insured, a “step-down” provision may subject the amount of available coverage...
View ArticleRound Up The Usual And Customary Suspects: Insurers May Determine UCR Prices...
For more than a decade, medical providers have tried to limit the discretion of automobile insurers to pay less than the billed amount for services and equipment offered to injured insureds. Most of...
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