Law Commons^™

Murder For Life Insurance Money: Protecting The Children, Johnny C. Chriscoe

Scholarly Works

Children are being murdered for life insurance proceeds.

Of course, if a beneficiary murders a child for the recovery of life insurance money and if he is apprehended, he will surely face numerous legal consequences. He will not recover the insurance money, he will be prosecuted and likely sentenced to life imprisonment or execution, he may be sued for the wrongful death of the child and he may be prosecuted for insurance fraud. However, all of these legal responses are triggered by the death of the child and, therefore, do not serve to protect the child from being murdered in …

The Role Of Prejudice In Resolving Insurance Condition Clause Disputes: The Good; The Bad; The Ugly, Johnny Parker

Articles, Chapters in Books and Other Contributions to Scholarly Works

This Article examines the legal consequences that flow out of an insurance company’s denial of coverage based on an insured’s failure to comply with policy conditions. Specifically, this Article examines the various methods used by courts to strike a balance between the principle of freedom of contract and policy norms associated with resolving condition clause disputes. The pros and cons of the historical condition precedent vs. condition subsequent analysis and the modern day functional approach to contractual interpretation are dissected and discussed in the insurance contract context. The prejudice rule, which is associated with the functional approach to contract interpretation, …

The Other "Personal Injury": Coverage B Of The Cgl Policy, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Notes From A Quiet Corner: User Concerns About Reinsurance Arbitration – And Attendant Lessons For Selection Of Dispute Resolution Forums And Methods, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Arbitration between insurers and reinsurers – those who insure insurance companies – should logically run as smoothly as any arbitration process. Like the traditional commercial arbitration that drove enactment of the Federal Arbitration Act, reinsurance arbitration involves experienced actors in a confined industry in which the parties should be constructively aware of the rules, norms, customs and practices of the industry. But in spite of this, reinsurance arbitration experiences consistent problems of which the participants complain. This article reviews the complaints and exams possible solutions – including the possibility of arbitrating less and litigating more. Although these possible solutions would …

An Analytic "Gap": The Perils Of Relentless Enforcement Of Payment-By-Underlying-Insurer-Only Language In Excess Insurance Policies, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Excess liability insurance, as the phrase implies, sits atop primary insurance or a lower layer of excess insurance and is required to cover only claims that are above the policy's "underlying limit" and reach the "attachment point" of the excess policy in question. Historically, the law was largely indifferent to whether the underlying limit was exhausted by full payment from the underlying insurer or by other means such as payment by the policyholder due to an underlying insurer's insolvency or because the policyholder and underlying insurer had compromised a coverage dispute for less than 100 percent coverage by the underlying …

Despite Trump, Federal ‘Tort Reform’ Makes A Hasty Retreat, Joanne Doroshow

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

Remedying Stigma-Driven Health Disparities In Sexual Minorities, Valarie K. Blake

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

N.C. Medicaid Reform: A Bipartisan Path Forward, Barak D. Richman, Allison Rice

Faculty Scholarship

The North Carolina Medicaid program currently constitutes 32% of the state budget and provides insurance coverage to 18% of the state’s population. At the same time, 13% of North Carolinians remain uninsured, and even among the insured, significant health disparities persist across income, geography, education, and race.

The Duke University Bass Connections Medicaid Reform project gathered to consider how North Carolina could use its limited Medicaid dollars more effectively to reduce the incidence of poor health, improve access to healthcare, and reduce budgetary pressures on the state’s taxpayers.

This report is submitted to North Carolina’s policymakers and citizens. It assesses …

Fracking Health Care: How To Safely De-Medicalize America And Recover Trapped Value For Its People, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

The wealth trapped within American health care is simultaneously a tragedy and a miracle. It is a tragedy because stagnating wages, widening disparities in income, ballooning deficits, and stunted investments in education and social services make such medical profligacy shameful. It is a miracle because it still exists, whereas other U.S. economic resources of similar magnitude have already been dissipated by global market forces without addressing any of the aforementioned failings – indeed, sometimes having contributed to them. It therefore can be released and used.

It is time to “frack the health care system” and innovate the de-medicalization of America. …

Forced Arbitration’S Lethal Consequence, Joanne Doroshow

Other Publications

No abstract provided.

From The Technical To The Personal: Teaching And Learning Health Insurance Regulation And Reform, Allison K. Hoffman, Whitney A. Brown, Lindsay Cutler

All Faculty Scholarship

In the Fall of 2016, I taught Health Law and Policy for the fourth consecutive semester. Over time, one thing has become increasingly clear: the aspect of this course that I work with most closely as a scholar—the regulation of health care financing and insurance, including the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)—is also the material that I find the most challenging to teach. Every time I reflect on teaching this material, and hear from students about how they learn this material, the thing that stands out is how critical it is that my students understand the profound impact …

Benefits Of The U.S. Program For Terrorism Insurance From A Comparative Perspective, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Faculty Works

This article summarizes the U.S. program for terrorism insurance and outlines its advantages as compared to similar programs in other developed countries. The program, while similar to reinsurance, does not require participants to pay premiums but instead uses an ex post recoupment mechanism. Consequently, it is generally referred to as a Federal “backstop.” This approach requires less capital investment and makes “pricing” more accurate than a reinsurance approach. The program also requires insurers to maintain significant amounts of exposure through insurer deductibles and copayments, which creates market demand for the development of terrorism reinsurance in the private market. The current …

Community Integration Of People With Disabilities: Can Olmstead Protect Against Retrenchment?, Mary Crossley

Articles

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, states have made significant progress in enabling Americans with disabilities to live in their communities, rather than institutions. That progress reflects the combined effect of the Supreme Court’s holding in Olmstead v. L.C. ex rel. Zimring, that states’ failure to provide services to disabled persons in the community may violate the ADA, and amendments to Medicaid that permit states to devote funding to home and community-based services (HCBS). This article considers whether Olmstead and its progeny could act as a check on a potential retrenchment of states’ …

Extra-Contractual Liability In The Restatement Of The Law, Liability Insurance: Breach Of The Duty To Settle Or Bad Faith?, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Faculty Works

This paper focuses on the Restatement’s treatment of an insurer’s duty to settle and the duty of an insurer to act in good faith in handling liability claims. The duty to settle is framed as an objective “duty to the insured to make reasonable settlement decisions.” At the same time, however, a separate claim is retained for an insurer’s “bad faith” breach of its duties (including the duty to settle). Further, a subjective element is adopted for the bad faith standard. To be liable for “bad faith,” an insurer must act “without a reasonable basis for its conduct” and must …