A lot of us like having some personal belongings in our car, but one news report shows that occasionally it can cause trouble you would have never predicted.
It’s important not to put stuff in a vehicle which blocks the back window – or a driver’s view of the road from any direction for that matter.
But, surely a cuddly toy on the back seat won’t cause any harm? Think again.
In Nottinghamshire an 80-year-old man returned to his car to find the rear window smashed, and a note from the police.
Earlier, a passer-by had phoned the emergency services, worried for the health of a dog on the back seat of the vehicle. It was Read more…
Recipients of guaranteed income annuity and personal injury payments from Executive Life Insurance Company of New York (ELNY) are in danger of losing their benefits, according to an order by a Nassau County judge.
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A deductible is an important element of every insurance policy. It is the amount the policyholder agrees to pay before insurance coverage kicks in, or the portion of the risk the policyholder agrees to self insure. It is no secret that insurance carriers prefer to issue policies with higher deductibles for certain perils, including hurricane losses. In Florida, insurance carriers can require a separate and distinct deductible for hurricane losses and another deductible for other perils under the insurance policy. The bait for consumers to accept a higher deductible for hurricane losses is a lower affordable premium. Many times, policyholders are not even aware they have a separate deductible for hurricane losses and only find out after their hurricane loss.
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A recurring issue in coverage litigation is the extent to which insurers are entitled to obtain the file of defense counsel in cases where the insurer has either denied coverage or is at least reserving rights with respect to whether certain claims are covered.
This is an issue of particular consequence in cases involving intellectual property, products liability claims and other cases where the insured settles for a large gross sum without any allocation between those amounts that are covered and other categories of damages that are not.
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A client asked me a question regarding statutes of limitations for first party insurance lawsuits in Hawaii. Although Hawaiian consumer law is similar to California law, Hawaii’s statutes are distinct. In California, two parties may contract out of a statute, but in Hawaii, they cannot. A statute of limitation stands as just that, the time limit for which one can bring a claim, before the claim will be barred.
Under the HRS (Hawaii Revised Statutes), there are two statutes for breach of contract: a two year statute and a six year statute. First Party insurance lawsuits are mainly premised upon breach of contract claims. B
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We are into a new year and with it comes a glimmer of hope that insurers will be heard (at least to some extent) in asbestos bankruptcy proceedings. However, two new decisions from the Ninth Circuit are a mixed bag, on the one hand allowing insurers standing to be heard on a debtor’s reorganization plan, but holding that insurance policy anti-assignment clauses and pre-petition agreements to arbitrate are not enforceable when they “conflict” with the purposes of the bankruptcy code.
The Ninth Circuit in In Re Thorpe Insulation, (January 24, 2012) __ F.3d _ (12 C.D.O.S. 939),
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