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"General Liability"
Bloomberg) — Reports of safety incidents involving civilian drones have surged to an average of 250 a month, leading to a federal “emergency” action to approve drone flights in restricted areas, according to a government notice seeking new procedures for the craft.
There is so much pent-up demand for obtaining special permission to fly drones in restricted airspace, that the Federal Aviation Administration says it can’t keep up. The FAA says drone users are flying without approval because of the delays.
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Hundreds of anguished Californians who lost their homes in an outbreak of wildfires this week now get to face another burden: dealing with insurers Continue reading
Ratings downgrades for global insurers and reinsurers are becoming more probable as they face more than $100 billion in 2017 catastrophe losses, a figure that threatens to weaken their capital reserves, Fitch Ratings Inc. said in a report on Tuesday.
Losses from Hurricane Maria, which could be as much as $85 billion, along with those of other recent 2017 catastrophes, including Hurricanes Irma and Harvey, the Mexico City earthquakes and other events, will force some reinsurers to dip into their capital, Fitch said. Continue reading
Social media networking, namely Twitter, presents businesses with several advantages including reaching potential and current customers. However, when used without prudence, social media, and namely Twitter can also result in situations where companies can face various liabilities including reputation damage, defamation cases and intellectual property lawsuits. Therefore, it’s important for individuals and businesses to exercise prudent risk management before deciding whether to tweet. Continue reading
With the recent natural disaster, Hurricane Harvey, and the amount of heavy rainfall and flooding, many are left to wonder if they will be covered by flood insurance for the damage caused to their homes on the Gulf Coast. Majority of homeowner’s insurance policies, however, DO NOT cover damage caused by flooding. Flood insurance was a very difficult coverage to get before the National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP, was enacted in 1963. Specific communities can participate in the NFIP as a separate policy for your home. Continue reading
With so many eyes on claims files, it’s no wonder documentation is a touchy subject for adjusters. Claims files are reviewed by auditors, supervisors, bad faith attorneys and others passing judgment often months or years after the fact, according to Kevin Quinley, founder and principal of Quinley Risk Associates. Continue reading
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law to give disabled people the same access to American life as those without disabilities. The Act is intended to give equal access to all Americans to all public spaces. The law was initially thought of as only applying to brick and mortar locations and couldn’t address access to the Internet, since the Internet wasn’t fully commercialized until 1995. Continue reading
Subrogation is the legal doctrine which allows one party, usually an insurance company, that pays a loss by its insured which was caused by a third party, to take over the rights of its insured against the third party and recover its claim payments. It wouldn’t make much sense if, after paying a first-party insurance claim that its insured was partly responsible for, an insurance company could sue its insured to get their money back. It would defeat the purpose of insurance. Preventing precisely that sort of inequitable scenario is the purpose of the anti-subrogation rule (ASR). Sometimes known as the “suing your own insured” defense, the ASR was originally developed based on the logical premise that because the carrier stands in the shoes of it’s insured, it would essentially be suing itself. Therefore, no right of subrogation can arise in favor of an insurance company against its own insured. Wager v. Providence Ins. Co., 150 U.S. 99 (1893); The John Russell, 68 F.2d 901 (2nd Cir. 1934); Sherwood Trucking, Inc. v. Carolina Cas. Ins. Co., 552 F.2d 568 (4th Cir. 1977); Peavey Co. v. M/V ANPA, 971 F.2d 1168 (5th Cir. 1992) (insured or additional assured); Prestige Cas. Co. v. Michigan Mut. Ins. Co., 99 F.3d 1340 (6th Cir. 1996). Continue reading
