
Smoke Concerns Persist Following Top Calif. Court Ruling
A decision from California's top court to allow litigants to cite a February ruling finding that two homeowners didn't have a covered fire debris claim could be used by insurers to try to limit coverage in other smoke and fire contexts, consumers advocates say, but industry leaders see the ruling as limiting frivolous claims.

Alaska Fishery Insurance Co-Ops Cast Wide Coverage Net
The Alaska House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill permitting commercial fishers to form insurance cooperatives, a move that allows all eligible boat owners the ability to obtain coverage from a source that understands the industry for a reasonable price, representatives said. Here, Law360 speaks with Reps. Louise Stutes and Kevin McCabe about what to expect.

Natural Disasters Change Climate For Art Insurance
Art loss isn't new, but it has gained more attention as natural disasters become increasingly frequent. The perils that threaten collections — hurricanes, floods, fires and even hailstorms — have made it harder to find coverage, sparking a trend of decoupling art insurance from other forms of coverage.
Property More
The Second Circuit on Thursday revived a bid by surplus insurers seeking to arbitrate claims over hurricane-related property damage in Louisiana, in a ruling that overturns its own precedent on the interpretat... (more story)
Pierson Ferdinand LLP has added a former McElroy Deutsch Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP attorney as a New York-based partner in its commercial litigation practice, the firm said Thursday.
A Georgia federal court on Wednesday rejected an insurer's pretrial bid to avoid covering a homeowners association's hail damage claims, finding there are "plainly genuine disputes of material fact as to wheth... (more story)
The owner of an apartment building in the Louisville, Kentucky, metro area accused a Liberty Mutual unit of denying property coverage in bad faith for a May 2023 arson incident that rendered the building a tot... (more story)
A Houston-area developer's insurer deliberately refrained from a proper investigation after a May 2024 storm and thus came up short on covering losses, the developer told a Texas federal court Monday.
Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.
With recent amendments to federal evidence rules now in effect, it’s more important than ever to make sure that deposition transcripts are clear and precise, and a few key strategies can help attorneys get the... (more story)
A Florida appellate court's recent decision is among the first to interpret two significant amendments to the state's insurance bad faith law, and its holding that one of the statutes could not apply retroacti... (more story)
Louisiana's Republican governor has crossed party lines by backing a proposal to empower the state's insurance commissioner to regulate rates, and while the move comes as part of a bid to stop spiraling proper... (more story)
A panel of insurance experts stressed in front of a U.S. Senate committee Thursday the importance of mitigation efforts, such as strengthening building codes and hardening homes, as the experts discussed how p... (more story)
General Liability More
A New Mexico property owner urged the Tenth Circuit to rethink its ruling that separate pollution exclusions in its commercial general liability policies entirely removed two insurers' duty to defend underlyin... (more story)
An insurer and a security guard service company have settled a coverage dispute over underlying negligence lawsuits involving a fatal shooting that occurred at a North Carolina truck stop, according to a notic... (more story)
UnitedHealth Group concealed how public scrutiny of its coverage policies and backlash from the killing of its CEO was harming its business, leading to plummeting stock prices when the insurer lowered its 2025... (more story)
Insurer Zurich urged a federal judge Wednesday to find midtrial that former policyholder Fluor has failed to prove up a case for bad-faith refusal to settle regarding a $300 million lead pollution payout, sayi... (more story)
A New York state court refused Wednesday to toss the Archdiocese of New York's claims for bad faith and violations of the state's deceptive trade practices law in a suit seeking coverage from Chubb units for t... (more story)
The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday considered whether insurance policies that straddle the date no-fault reforms went into effect should be subjected to post-reform increased limits for liability and sche... (more story)
An insurer for a private boarding school told a Massachusetts federal court it owes no coverage to the school and its former head for a civil lawsuit accusing a former teacher of sexually abusing students, poi... (more story)
A woman who won a $1.3 million verdict against a Liberty Mutual insured over a car crash said the insurer is now on the hook for the award, telling a Connecticut federal court the insurer could and should have... (more story)
An insurer told an Illinois federal court that Amtrak has no coverage for an underlying slip-and-fall injury lawsuit brought by an employee, because it's not an additional insured under its policy and the unde... (more story)
A California federal court partially granted class certification Monday over policyholders' claims that a group of insurers violated the state's rule on good driver discounts.
Specialty Lines More
A Washington federal court on Thursday ordered a subcontractor's insurer to reimburse a general contractor's insurer for more than $280,000 after both insurers helped settle an underlying worker injury lawsuit... (more story)
Lloyd's underwriters don't owe coverage for an $8.1 million award to the employer of a deckhand who was injured by defective mooring at a natural gas extraction platform, the Ninth Circuit held, saying coverag... (more story)
Insurance and risk professionals around the country gathered in Chicago to discuss potential perils and opportunities for the future, with talks often centering on President Donald Trump's administration, tech... (more story)
The Third Circuit declined Tuesday to reconsider its decision that PNC Bank isn't owed coverage for a $106 million judgment it incurred over claims that its predecessor mismanaged funeral trust accounts.
The Fourth Circuit seemed skeptical Tuesday that Towers Watson's settlement of shareholder litigation was not an effective increase in deal compensation barred by a so-called bump-up exclusion in its directors... (more story)
An Illinois food ingredient manufacturer may be able to tap into one of its Citizens insurance policies for coverage of an underlying biometric privacy suit, if the company can prove it provided the insurer wi... (more story)
Companies need to consider a wide range of protections and policies to stem the growing risks posed by social engineering, wire transfer fraud and other forms of cyberattacks, panelists at a risk conference said Monday.
An Ohio federal judge on Friday delayed an upcoming trial over a late Amazon worker's life insurance policy by about two months but declined to convert it to a bench trial at this point, saying the request to ... (more story)
Liberty Mutual's surplus lines unit says an Uber rider and his then-employer, Boston-based developer Beacon Communities, are liable for a claim the insurer paid out to a cyclist who was "doored" as the passeng... (more story)
A federal appellate panel grappled Thursday with whether to uphold class certification in a lawsuit claiming that State Farm systematically undervalues totaled vehicles, with one judge wondering if every class... (more story)