Insurance Law

Plans to arm teachers and administrators with guns at school are blocked by insurers

After the massacre of 20 children and six adults in a Connecticut elementary school shooting late last year, some called for gun control and others suggested that a better answer would be to arm those at the schools. But an unexpected roadblock has emerged in the seven states in which…

Jul 10, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

London-based Clyde & Co. opens 4th US office with Robins Kaplan insurance coverage team

In a big step beyond its existing three offices in New York, New Jersey and San Francisco, a 1,400-attorney London-based law firm has now opened a fourth U.S. office, in Atlanta. It is staffed by a team of three lawyers from Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi who focus their practice…

Jul 9, 2013 12:23 PM CDT

10 years after fatal Chicago porch collapse, $16.6M case concludes

Almost 10 years ago, some 75 guests, including at least one attorney and a number of law students, were attending a summer party at a home in the trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Shortly after midnight, a back porch on the third floor collapsed, falling into the basement level…

Jun 24, 2013 8:00 PM CDT

Law school sues insurer, seeks coverage of civil racketeering case

Liberty University School of Law has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to force its insurance carrier to defend the institution in an earlier civil racketeering case over a child-custody battle between married same-sex parents, reports Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s VLW Blog. The underlying suit, which is proceeding in federal court in…

Jun 19, 2013 9:30 PM CDT

Hurricane Sandy still a daily reality for law firms left homeless by the storm

Hurricane Sandy was over months ago, but it’s still a daily reality for a number of New York law firms struggling with the aftermath. Among that group are law firms which were located at 110 Wall Street, where leases were cancelled due to flood damage. Finding new office space is…

Jun 17, 2013 9:14 PM CDT

Insurance lawyer falls to his death while inspecting roof for storm damage

Michael Andrew Sway, 44, fell through a roof and died Thursday while inspecting a vacant building Lancaster, Ohio, for structural damage, the Columbus Dispatch reports. The industrial building’s owner sued various insurance companies, including Sway’s client, National Fire Insurance of Hartford, regarding a disputed storm damage claim. Sway fell between…

May 24, 2013 7:15 PM CDT

Federal judge jails estate lawyer as flight risk, nixes ‘bizarre’ effort to revoke plea

A Rhode Island estate planning lawyer’s effort to revoke his guilty plea in a controversial $30 million elder insurance fraud case was a “bizarre” and unjustified “hatchet job” on Joseph Caramadre’s former counsel, a federal judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge William Smith not only nixed Caramadre’s bid for a…

May 21, 2013 11:09 AM CDT

Kasowitz opens new Calif. office with two Jenner insurance recovery partners

Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman has opened a new office in Century City, Calif., with two partners from Jenner & Block. They are Jerold Oshinsky and Linda Kornfeld. Both represent businesses and university policyholders in insurance coverage disputes with their carriers, and Oshinsky had co-chaired the practice group at Jenner.…

May 21, 2013 10:30 AM CDT

Angelina Jolie’s op-ed on preventive mastectomy backs gene tests that are subject of SCOTUS case

Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a double mastectomy, explained in a New York Times op-ed, was due to a defect in the BRCA1 gene that greatly increased the actress’s risk for breast cancer. Jolie wrote about her experience because she hoped that other women would also be able to get…

May 15, 2013 5:27 PM CDT

Lawyers who didn’t notify insurance carrier of ‘nuisance case’ lose coverage appeal

Husband-and-wife West Virginia lawyers who practiced together in the same Charleston firm initially didn’t report to their insurance carrier what they subsequently described as a pro se “nuisance case” over a $290,000 check that the plaintiff said was wrongfully issued to one of the firm’s attorneys. But after the plaintiff,…

May 13, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

Fertilizer explosion caused some $100M in damage; plant had ‘pathetic’ $1M in insurance

As state and federal officials look into an apparent lack of regulatory scrutiny of a Texas fertilizer facility that exploded in a fiery blast last month, killing 15 people and injuring another 200, a further issue has come to the attention of outside lawyers representing victims of the disaster. The…

May 6, 2013 5:15 PM CDT

Big-bucks jury question: Did concert promoter select or supervise Michael Jackson’s personal doctor?

Opening arguments began Monday in a small Los Angeles courtroom in a wrongful death case that could involve millions, or perhaps even billions, of dollars in damages. At issue is whether concert promoter AEG Live had a role in hiring or supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, who served as Michael Jackson’s…

Apr 29, 2013 9:05 PM CDT

Volunteer lawyers helping Boston business owners note employee, insurance issues

Corrected: Business owners dealing with the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings will be facing legal issues ranging from insurance coverage to compensation for injured employees. More than 400 businesses were forced to close during the bombing investigation and a handful suffered property damage, according to the Boston Globe. Insurance…

Apr 29, 2013 10:38 AM CDT

Lawyer learns the hard way about limits of bank safe-deposit box protection

The fine print in contracts for renting a bank safe-deposit box explain that valuables placed in them by customers, unlike ordinary checking and savings accounts, aren’t covered by the FDIC insurance. But a lot of people may not understand that. Among those who learned this information the hard way was…

Apr 26, 2013 4:35 PM CDT

Will the Boston Marathon bombings qualify as terrorism for insurance purposes?

President Barack Obama called the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday that killed three people and injured over 170 others “an act of terror.” But unless and until the secretary of the treasury, in conjunction with the secretary of state and the U.S. attorney general, certify that they agree, coverage won’t…

Apr 18, 2013 4:40 PM CDT