Insurance Law

Jerry Oshinsky Joins Jenner & Block; Former Firm Shortens Name to Gilbert

An insurance coverage practitioner who has been a name partner in at least three law firms is joining Jenner & Block as a partner. Jerry Oshinsky is expected to help the Chicago-based litigation powerhouse, which already has an active coverage practice representing corporate policyholders, build its West Coast operations, according…

Aug 19, 2009 11:52 PM CDT

Promoter’s Insurance Against Jackson Concert No-Show Excluded Illegal Drugs

As Michael Jackson geared up earlier this summer for a series of planned London concerts, a $17.5 million Lloyd’s policy insured promoter AEG Live against his non-appearance “resulting from accident.” But it also contains a provision excluding “any loss directly or indirectly arising out of, contributed to, by or resulting…

Aug 7, 2009 5:02 PM CDT

Ex-AIG Chief Issues ‘Defiant Statement’ After Settling with SEC for $15M

Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former CEO of the American International Group, has agreed to pay $15 million to settle a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission accusing him of overseeing an accounting fraud at the insurer. The amount is one of the largest settlements against an individual in a…

Aug 7, 2009 12:08 PM CDT

Partner Profit Plunged 17% at UK’s 50 Biggest Firms Over Past Fiscal Year

Although revenue is up nearly 3 percent at the United Kingdom’s top 50 law firms, equity partner profit has plunged an average of 17 percent over the past fiscal year as the legal industry struggles to cope with the dismal economy. “I don’t think the industry has ever seen a…

Jul 30, 2009 6:52 PM CDT

Writer Recalls Dad, a Lawyer Who Warned of Peril, in Near Calamity

A magazine writer recalled his father’s warnings of peril when he had to cope with his own son’s brush with disaster during a car ride in suburban Washington, D.C. The boy, Ichi, had wrapped the car’s shoulder strap around his neck, and he began to choke when writer Matt Bai’s…

Jul 27, 2009 6:05 PM CDT

Scary Discovery Sanctions Case Packs 3rd Circuit Courtroom

Daunting discovery sanctions imposed by a federal judge on defense lawyers who were, many colleagues say, simply doing their job in a medical insurance coverage case filed by a group of doctors packed an appellate courtroom during a recent oral argument. Although the underlying case settled after U.S. District Judge…

Jul 22, 2009 6:08 PM CDT

Medicare Slow to Accept Lawyers’ Offers of Money

Some personal injury lawyers say their clients are willing and ready to reimburse Medicare for the costs of their care, but the agency is taking as long as a year to come up with a figure for the amount owed. Kansas City, Mo., lawyer John Kurtz told McClatchy Newspapers he…

Jul 13, 2009 4:08 PM CDT

Boies Wins With Show-Me-the-Paperwork Argument in Greenberg Case

Federal jurors in New York sided with litigator David Boies yesterday and rejected a claim that his client, the former chief executive of American International Group, had improperly transferred $4.3 billion in company stock to a corporation he controlled. AIG had claimed that after Maurice “Hank” Greenberg was ousted as…

Jul 8, 2009 12:40 PM CDT

Insurance Co. Agrees to Settle Key Autism Case With 100 Families

As lawmakers across the country draft and pass legislation that requires insurance companies to pay for autism treatments, a Michigan insurance company has opted to settle with 100 families seeking to be reimbursed for autism treatments for their children. The $1 million class action settlement agreed to by Blue Cross…

Jun 23, 2009 10:14 AM CDT

At Issue in Health Care Debate: Insurers Cancel When Policyholders Get Sick

When she developed aggressive breast cancer, a Texas nurse says, her insurer canceled her individual medical insurance policy. The purported reason was that she had failed to disclose information when she applied for the health coverage–she had once visited a dermatologist about her acne. Such stories of health coverage rescinded…

Jun 17, 2009 5:14 PM CDT

Dewey & LeBoeuf Sued for $3B on Behalf of Failed Insurer’s Policyholders

Dewey & LeBoeuf is facing a $3 billion suit that claims the law firm is liable for faulty legal advice given to General American Life Insurance when it was sold to MetLife—another insurer that soon became a law firm client. The suit (PDF posted by the Am Law Daily) targets…

Jun 2, 2009 11:47 AM CDT

Exerting Their Patients

Spate of lawsuits forces change in not-for-profit hospital billing

May 2, 2009 2:30 AM CDT

Former Employees Say Insurer May Have Paid Their Lawyer $5 Million

Did a major insurer make a $5 million payment to a law firm representing former employees against the company? That is the question that may soon finally be answered after more than five years of litigation between Prudential and some of the 359 employees who filed an earlier suit against…

Apr 21, 2009 12:52 AM CDT

Arbitrators Can Award Legal Fees Despite Dutch-Treat ADR Pact, 2nd Circuit Says

The arbitration agreement between two insurance companies called for each to bear its own costs to resolve a dispute. But that didn’t prevent the arbitration panel from awarding sanctions, the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided. Overruling a federal trial judge on the sanctions issue,…

Apr 14, 2009 10:30 PM CDT

Feds Seize Madoff’s Yacht, as Owners of Less Expensive Watercraft Abandon Ship

As federal agents today seized a 55-foot yacht owned by convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, other owners of less expensive watercraft reportedly are abandoning ship on boats they can no longer afford to maintain. The yacht, described as a beautifully maintained custom-built antique by the owner of the South Florida…

Apr 1, 2009 10:37 PM CDT