More Insurance Coverage
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January 15, 2025
Symetra Life Policyholders Seek $32.5M Settlement Approval
A proposed class of Symetra policyholders asked a Washington federal court to preliminarily approve a $32.5 million deal to resolve a suit alleging that the insurer overcharged them for life insurance, saying the 11-state settlement would cover the owners of 43,000 policies.
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January 15, 2025
Chubb Unit Seeks Exit From Bar's $105M Drunken Driving Suit
A Chubb unit said it no longer owes coverage to a bar appealing a $105 million judgment related to a drunken patron's car crash, telling a Texas federal court the bar violated the terms of the policy by refusing to cooperate with the insurer's defense.
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January 13, 2025
Blue Cross Can't Skirt NC Hospital's Defamation Claims
A local hospital can pursue some of its defamation claims against Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in a suit alleging the health insurer wrongly denied millions of dollars in reimbursements and falsely accused the facility of fraud, a federal judge ruled Monday.
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January 13, 2025
Investment Firm Seeks Coverage For Hertz Buyback Suits
An investment adviser said its insurers must provide coverage for underlying actions related to the adviser's involvement in car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc.'s stock buybacks, telling a Delaware state court that its primary carrier improperly denied coverage.
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January 13, 2025
Justices Won't Hear Farming Partnership's Crop Policy Fight
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to review a Ninth Circuit decision backing the Federal Crop Insurance Corp.'s conclusion that a farming partnership seeking to recover its $1.9 million policy limit didn't qualify for coverage.
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January 10, 2025
Infosys Files Antitrust Counterclaims In Trade Secrets Suit
Healthcare payments software company Infosys has hit back with antitrust counterclaims against Cognizant TriZetto Software Group's Texas federal court suit accusing Infosys of abusing its system access to develop competing services.
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January 10, 2025
9th Circ. Affirms Hearing Aid Co.'s Win Over Investor Suit
The Ninth Circuit on Friday handed a win to Eargo Inc. and affirmed the dismissal of a securities class action against the hearing aid company, which alleged that the company and its top brass acted with intent to commit insurance billing fraud.
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January 08, 2025
Citizens Financial Group GC Jumps To Corebridge Financial
Citizens Financial Group Inc.'s general counsel is preparing a move to financial services company Corebridge Financial Inc. as its new general counsel next month.
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January 06, 2025
Pa. Panel Permits Stacked UIM Benefits Within Same Policy
A woman severely injured in a motorcycle accident is entitled to underinsured motorist coverage under the same policy that directly covered the motorcycle, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled, finding that because she held a separate policy providing underinsured benefits, stacking was permitted under the former policy.
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January 03, 2025
Victims Say Crypto Isn't Money, Safeco Must Cover Hack
A Washington couple is accusing Safeco Insurance Co. of illegally refusing coverage for $600,000 in cryptocurrency stolen by hackers, saying in a complaint removed to Seattle federal court on Thursday that the tokens should be classified as personal property, not money, which has a $250 loss limit on the pair's homeowners' policy.
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January 01, 2025
2025 Michigan Cases To Watch
Attorneys predict the new five-justice Democratic majority on the Michigan Supreme Court this year could put teeth into a once-strong consumer protection statute, continue to tweak the state's premises liability law and could take on a federally posed question of the constitutionality of medical malpractice caps.
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December 17, 2024
Express Scripts, OptumRx Can't Ditch LA County Opioid Suit
A California judge ruled Tuesday that Los Angeles County can keep pursuing a lawsuit claiming pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and OptumRx colluded with drugmakers to fuel the opioid epidemic, though the county must rework its complaint to specify how regulators were allegedly deceived.
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December 17, 2024
Insurers Freed From Multivehicle House Collision Row
The Michigan Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's decision, finding that the insurers of vehicles damaged during a 2019 semitruck accident were not responsible for paying for a home that was also destroyed in the incident because the other cars' involvement in the melee was secondary.
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December 17, 2024
Oil Cos. Seek Coverage For Water Byproduct Pollution
Two oil and gas companies accused their commercial general liability insurer and certain Lloyd's of London underwriters of denying coverage for a release of waste byproduct in bad faith, telling a New Mexico federal court the release further triggered state-supervised remediation efforts that imposed additional costs.
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December 16, 2024
UnitedHealthcare Shooting Suspect Hires Ex-NYC Prosecutor
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former veteran prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, has been retained to represent the man accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan earlier this month, a spokesperson for Agnifilo's firm said Monday.
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December 16, 2024
Pa. Malpractice Fund Belongs To State, 3rd Circ. Rules
The Third Circuit said Monday in a precedential ruling that Pennsylvania's medical malpractice insurance fund is an agency of the state and that it can dip into the fund's $300 million budget surplus.
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December 16, 2024
11th Circ. Appears Wary Of Doc's New Trial Bid In $27.5M Case
The Eleventh Circuit on Monday questioned whether a Georgia doctor and his medical practice should get a new trial in a $27.5 million False Claims Act case on the basis that he and an expert who wasn't allowed to testify at trial believed the thousands of treatments he billed for were medically necessary and could be covered by Medicare, saying that contention seems to contradict the doctor's prior statements.
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December 16, 2024
Wyden Bill Would Nix Tax Perks For Private Placement Plans
U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden unveiled legislation Monday that would remove the tax benefits of a special type of private life insurance plan that he said high-net-worth individuals have been abusing to avoid paying taxes on their investments in the policies.
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December 16, 2024
What They're Saying About South Florida Real Estate
As 2024 comes to a close, Law360 Real Estate Authority checked in with attorneys, developers, brokers and other professionals to gather their views on what the year meant for the South Florida market and what they anticipate for 2025.
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December 13, 2024
UnitedHealthcare Owes $900K For Services, Provider Says
A national healthcare provider and two affiliated entities told a Minnesota federal court that UnitedHealthcare owes over $900,000 in independent dispute resolution awards entered against the carrier, accusing it of devising a scheme of denying, delaying and underpaying out-of-network providers.
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December 13, 2024
Retirees Say Lumber Co.'s $1.5B Pension Transfer Upped Risk
A wood product manufacturer violated federal benefits law when it transferred $1.5 billion of pension obligations to a private equity-backed insurance company, substantially increasing the risk that retirees will see their benefits slashed, according to a proposed class action filed in federal court.
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December 11, 2024
Law Firm Manager Gets Prison For Bribes In No-Fault Scam
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday hit a former law firm manager with a five-year prison sentence for paying $800,000 in bribes that fueled a $70 million no-fault automobile insurance fraud racket, saying his lawbreaking "was massive in scope."
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December 09, 2024
Tribal Court Wins Jurisdiction For 4th Time In COVID-19 Suit
The Ninth Circuit affirmed that Cabazon Reservation Court judges had jurisdiction over the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians' suit seeking millions in COVID-19 pandemic loss coverage after its casino closed temporarily, despite an insurer's fourth attempt to evade the tribal court.
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December 06, 2024
Black Doctor Says BCBS Axed Her From Network Due To Race
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan wrongfully terminated a Black dermatologist from its network of health providers because of her race, the doctor told a Michigan federal court, alleging the health insurer terminated her after it claimed her "error rate" in billing was too high.
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December 06, 2024
Feds, NC Insurance Mogul Want Grier Wright On $2B Liquidation
Convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg and federal prosecutors have come together to ask a North Carolina federal judge to appoint an attorney from Grier Wright Martinez PA to serve as special master for liquidating Lindberg's billions in assets as restitution for his $2 billion fraud scheme.
Expert Analysis
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Law Firm Executive Orders Create A Legal Ethics Minefield
Recent executive orders targeting BigLaw firms create ethical dilemmas — and raise the specter of civil or criminal liability — for the government attorneys tasked with implementing them and for the law firms that choose to make agreements with the administration, say attorneys at Buchalter.
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Firms Must Embrace Alternative Billing Models Or Fall Behind
As artificial intelligence tools eliminate inefficiencies and the Big Four accounting firms enter the legal market, law firms that pivot from the entrenched billable hour model to outcomes-based pricing will see a distinct competitive advantage, says attorney William Brewer.
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How Attorneys Can Master The Art Of On-Camera Presence
As attorneys are increasingly presented with on-camera opportunities, they can adapt their traditional legal skills for video contexts — such as virtual client meetings, marketing content or media interviews — by understanding the medium and making intentional adjustments, says Kerry Barrett.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From Fed. Prosecutor To BigLaw
Making the jump from government to private practice is no small feat, but, based on my experience transitioning to a business-driven environment after 15 years as an assistant U.S. attorney, it can be incredibly rewarding and help you become a more versatile lawyer, says Michael Beckwith at Dickinson Wright.
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Firms Still Have Lateral Market Advantage, But Risks Persist
Partner and associate mobility data from the fourth quarter of 2024 shows that we’re in a new, stable era of lateral hiring where firms have the edge, but leaders should proceed cautiously, looking beyond expected revenue and compensation analyses for potential risks, say Julie Henson and Greg Hamman at Decipher Investigative Intelligence.
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Recent Cases Highlight Latest AI-Related Civil Litigation Risks
Ongoing lawsuits in federal district courts reveal potential risks that companies using artificial intelligence may face from civil litigants, including health insurance coverage cases involving contractual and equitable claims, and myriad cases concerning securities disclosure claims, say attorneys at Katten.
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We Must Allow Judges To Use Their Independent Judgment
As two recent cases show, the ability of judges to access their independent judgment crucially enables courts to exercise the discretion needed to reach the right outcome based on the unique facts within the law, says John Siffert at Lankler Siffert & Wohl.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: March Lessons
In this month's review of class actions appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses three federal appellate court decisions and identifies practice tips from cases involving antitrust allegations against coupon processing services, consumer fraud and class action settlements.
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Adapting To Private Practice: From SEC To BigLaw
As I adjusted to the multifaceted workflow of a BigLaw firm after leaving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, working side by side with new colleagues on complex matters proved the fastest way to build a deep rapport and demonstrate my value, says Jennifer Lee at Jenner & Block.
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Making The Case For Rest In The Legal Profession
For too long, a culture of overwork has plagued the legal profession, but research shows that attorneys need rest to perform optimally and sustainably, so legal organizations and individuals must implement strategies that allow for restoration, says Marissa Alert at MDA Wellness, Carol Ross-Burnett at CRB Global, and Denise Robinson at The Still Center.
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4 Ways Women Attorneys Can Build A Legal Legacy
This Women’s History Month, women attorneys should consider what small, day-to-day actions they can take to help leave a lasting impact for future generations, even if it means mentoring one person or taking 10 minutes to make a plan, says Jackie Prester, a former shareholder at Baker Donelson.
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A Judge's Pointers For Adding Spice To Dry Legal Writing
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery shares a few key lessons about how to go against the grain of the legal writing tradition by adding color to bland judicial opinions, such as by telling a human story and injecting literary devices where possible.
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6th Circ. Ruling Paves Path Out Of Loper Bright 'Twilight Zone'
The U.S. Supreme Court’s Loper Bright ruling created a twilight zone between express statutory delegations that trigger agency deference and implicit ones that do not, but the Sixth Circuit’s recent ruling in Moctezuma-Reyes v. Garland crafted a two-part test for resolving cases within this gray area, say attorneys at Wiley.