Sorry, says the West Virginia high court, but renewing your lapsed auto insurance policy the day after your crash won’t fly [WV Record] The decision reversed a lower court ruling ordering Progressive Insurance to pay the claim, which had been filed not by the driver but by a bank and car dealer.
Posts Tagged ‘insurance’
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not keeping up with my other site:
- Despite New Yorkers’ outrage over railroad retirement disability abuses, Cuomo probe accomplishes little;
- Founded by America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure® RFK Jr., the Waterkeeper Alliance is with reason a highly controversial group. Should the University of Maryland be enlisting students regularly in its litigation campaigns?
- NYT relies on plaintiff lawyer source in accusatory story about Pope, then has to walk the story back;
- Louisiana judge: “gradual”, “environmental” insurance exclusions don’t apply to bad-drywall claims;
- New CPSC product complaint database could invite erroneous or even malicious submissions, critics say;
- CBS “60 Minutes” stonewalls Columbia Journalism Review critique of its Chevron-Ecuador segment.
An insurance defense lawyer’s dream
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not following my other site:
- Rick Esenberg on health care reform and the Constitution (with Mark Steyn link, no less). And Peggy Little on shifting views of state AGs’ role;
- A first: attorneys nailed in asbestos fraud (more: Law.com)
- Jonathan Wilson: Georgia high court strikes down medical malpractice damages cap, while upholding offer of judgment rule and emergency room liability standard.
- “That nice Mr. Smith does not have to pay this personally, does he?” Jurors and insurance;
- James Copland on the friends of Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid;
- Lawyers up, lobbyists down, which creates opportunities for arbitrage in D.C.
Canada: STDs not insurable “accident”
“The Supreme Court of Canada has taken away a $200,000 insurance award made to a Vancouver man who became paralyzed after a series of medical calamities arising from him having unprotected sex.” [The Globe and Mail]
“Ask Your Lawyer If He Carries Malpractice Insurance; You May be Surprised”
Physician-blogger Musings of a Dinosaur has some thoughts on the issue. More states are requiring lawyers to inform clients whether they carry liability insurance, according to the ABA Journal. Texas is one state where many lawyers are tenaciously trying to head off such a rule: “according to a February 2008 survey of attorneys conducted by the State Bar, 48 percent of the 6,160 attorneys who completed the survey do not have professional liability coverage.” [Texas Lawyer, White Coat]
“Insurer Must Defend ‘Douche’ Defamation Suit, Judge Says”
“Calling someone a ‘douche’ may be bad manners but it does not give an insurance company grounds to disavow a policy protecting against defamation claims, a state judge has ruled.” The owner of a public relations firm was sued by a rival after he purchased a domain containing the rival’s name and posted as content on the resulting page a picture of the sanitary product “Summer’s Eve”. [Daniel Wise, NYLJ]
October 28 roundup
- Alleged wife murderer “sues J.P. Morgan for cutting off his home equity line of credit.” Reason cited: “imprisonment”. [Joe Weisenthal, Business Insider via Fountain]
- Charles Krauthammer on the need to “reform our insane malpractice system. … I used to be a doctor, I know how much is wasted on defensive medicine.” [Der Spiegel interview]
- Popehat looks back on turning two, in customarily entertaining fashion [unsigned collective post]
- Sigh: “Chamber of Commerce Sues ‘Yes Men’ for Fake News Conference” [ABA Journal]
- Coverage mandates explain a lot about why health insurance is so much costlier in some states than others [Coyote] More: Tyler Cowen (autism treatment)
- Watch out for those default judgments: PepsiCo hit with $1.26 billion award in Wisconsin state court, says word of suit never got to responsible officials within the company [National Law Journal]
- Ohio appeals court: characterizing incident as “Baby Mama Drama” is not prosecutorial misconduct [The Briefcase]
- Ideological tests for educators? On efforts to screen out would-be teachers not seen as committed enough to “social justice” [K.C. Johnson, Minding the Campus]
“No other driver permitted”
That clause means what it says, 
an Illinois appeals court decides in an insurance claim against Enterprise car rental [Madison County Record]
“The persecution of Belmont Abbey”
Charlotte Allen of the Manhattan Institute on the EEOC’s crackdown on a traditionalist Catholic college for not including contraceptives in its health plan. [Weekly Standard]