Insurance Law Commons^™

Call For Action: Provinces And Territories Must Protect Our Genetic Information, Leah Hutt, Elaine Gibson, Erin Kennedy

Dalhousie Law Journal

The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GNDA), passed by Parliament in 2017, seeks to protect Canadians’ genetic information. The GNDA establishes certain criminal prohibitions to the use of genetic information and also amends federal employment and human rights legislation to protect against genetic discrimination. However, we argue that the GNDA alone is insufficient to protect Canadians given constitutional limitations on the powers of the federal government. Areas of profound importance relating to genetic discrimination are governed by the provinces and territories. We identify three key areas of provincial/territorial jurisdiction relevant to protection against genetic discrimination and outline the applicable legislative environments. We …

The Case For Banning (And Mandating) Ransomware Insurance, Kyle D. Logue, Adam B. Shniderman

Law & Economics Working Papers

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly pervasive and disruptive. Not only are they shutting down (or at least “holding up”) businesses and local governments all around the country, they are disrupting institutions in many sectors of the U.S. economy — from school systems, to medical facilities, to critical elements of the U.S. energy infrastructure as well as the food supply chain. Ransomware attacks are also growing more frequent and the ransom demands more exorbitant. Those ransom payments are increasingly being covered by insurance. That insurance offers coverage for a variety of cyber-related losses, including many of the costs arising out of …

Law School News: Rwu Law Acquires Top Marine Law Journal 08-19-2021, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Frivolous Defenses, Thomas D. Russell

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article is about civil procedure, torts, insurance, litigation, and professional ethics. The Article is the opening article in a conversation with Stanford Law Professor Nora Freeman Engstrom, who has written about the plaintiffs’ bar and settlement mill attorneys. The empirical center of this piece examines 356 answers to 298 car crash personal injury cases in Colorado’s district courts. The Article situates these cases within dispute pyramid elements, including the total number of miles-traveled within Colorado and the volume of civil litigation. The Article then analyzes the defense attorneys’ departures from the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, especially Rule 8. …

Making A Declaration: The Rise Of Declaratory Judgment Actions And The Insurer As Regulator In The Fight To End Sex Trafficking In The Hotel Industry, Lori N. Ross

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

“Let it not be said that I was silent when they needed me.”

– William Wilberforce

Penerapan Prinsip Kontribusi Dan Prinsip Subrogasi Dalam Asuransi Pengangkutan Laut (Studi Kasus Pt. Asuransi Axa Indonesia Dengan Pt. Asuransi Buana Independent), Luthfiana Arumsari

"Dharmasisya” Jurnal Program Magister Hukum FHUI

In insurance, for the same object can be insured to more than 1 (one) insurance company, which means it is possible for an insured to receive profits from 2 (two) or more insurers, to avoid this, in the insurance law in Indonesia known indemnity principle , which serves to avoid the benefits received by the insured that exceeds the losses suffered. The author conducted research at PT. AXA Insurance Indonesia (hereinafter referred to as PT. AXA) and PT. Buana Independent Insurance (hereinafter referred to as PT. ABI), each of which is an Insurance company that has equally guaranteed a cargo …

The Extent Of Insurance Coverage To Terrorism-Related Aviation Incidents, Dr. Abdullah Al Tarawneh

UAEU Law Journal

The insurance for terrorist Air-Attacks is considered as a new technique for protection the social interests of the victims of terrorist air accidents. This technique has not occupied a great attention of the legislators, except some of international legislations and national laws, which expressly provide for the compensations of the victims of air terrorism, without founding the legal framework for such compensation. The compensation takes many forms, such as State’s aids or Insurance companies’ compensations.

The dialectic of insurance cannot be tuned, unless after determining the responsibility of wrongdoer who causes the accident of air terrorism. This means, the responsibility …

Frivolous Defenses, Thomas D. Russell

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article is about civil procedure, torts, insurance, litigation, and professional ethics. This is an empirical piece with data drawn from a sample of 356 answers to 298 complaints in car crash lawsuits to identify various ways that, I argue, insurance defense lawyers evade the rules of civil procedure and, frankly, act unprofessionally.

The empirical center of this piece examines 356 answers in car crash personal injury cases in Colorado’s district courts. First, I situate these cases within dispute pyramid elements including the total number of miles-traveled within Colorado and also with respect to the volume of civil litigation.

The …

Ashes To Ashes: A Way Home For Climate Change Survivors, Kenneth S. Klein

Faculty Scholarship

In 2020, the United States suffered a record number of named storms, a record number of storms causing $1 billion or more in damage, a derecho that destroyed much of Iowa’s corn crop, and previously unheard-of levels of wildfire frequency and damage in California, Oregon, and Washington. The effects of climate change are causing a crisis of affordable, available homeowner insurance. As more and more homes in the United States are in high-risk areas for natural catastrophes, insurers increasingly choose not to offer insurance at all in some communities, exclude disaster risks from coverage in others, and dramatically raise prices …

A Pathway To Health Care Citizenship For Daca Beneficiaries, Medha D. Makhlouf, Patrick J. Glen

Faculty Scholarly Works

Since 2012, beneficiaries of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have enjoyed a certain normalization, however tenuous, of their status in the United States: they can legally work, their removal proceedings are deferred, and they cease to accrue unlawful presence. Regarding subsidized health coverage, however, DACA beneficiaries remain on the outside looking in. Although other deferred action beneficiaries are eligible for benefits through Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act, the Obama Administration specifically excluded DACA beneficiaries. This decision undermines DACA’s goal of legitimizing beneficiaries’ presence in the United States. From a health policy perspective, it …

Finding Parity Through Preclusion: Novel Mental Health Parity Solutions At The State Level, Ryan D. Kingshill

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Recently, the federal government has taken numerous steps to promote the equal treatment (also known as parity) of mental and physical health issues. The two most impactful actions are the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act of 2008 and the Affordable Care Act. These acts focus on the traditional avenue for parity change—insurance regulation. While these acts have improved parity, major gaps in coverage and treatment between mental health/substance use disorder treatment and medical/surgical treatment persist. ERISA Preemption, evasive insurer behavior, lack of enforcement, and lack of consumer education continue to plague patients and healthcare professionals. On its own, federal …

Tran V. Minnesota Life Insurance Co., Thomas Gawel

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Notpetya, Not Warfare: Rethinking The Insurance War Exclusion In The Context Of International Cyberattacks, Katherine S. Wan

Washington Law Review

When an insurer wants to avoid coverage of a specific type of loss, it must explicitly exclude the loss in its policy. The war exclusion is a typical exclusion found in insurance policies that excuses insurers from covering losses caused by war or warlike actions. Courts interpreting the exclusion have traditionally held that war must consist of hostilities between sovereign nations. Despite the rise of state-sponsored cyberattacks, the United States has been hesitant to officially declare war in response. Even still, insurers argue that their war exclusions should apply to these new cyber losses. Courts are now tasked with reanalyzing …

Private Insurance Limits And Responses, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a number of existing flaws in the United States’ patchwork approach to paying for and providing access to medical care. Shelter-in-place orders, social distancing, and other public health strategies employed to address the pandemic spawned a global recession, causing rapid and high unemployment rates in many countries. The U.S. unemployment rate peaked in April 2020 at 14.7%, higher than in any previous period since World War II. The United States has long hewed an anachronistic policy of relying heavily on private employers to provide health insurance to a substantial portion of the population. Those who are …

The Current System Of Resolving Insurance Disputes In Saudi Arabia: Its Weaknesses And Ways Of Developing It, Saleh Alsheha

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Insurance industry generally revolves around financial risks, and the business of insurance companies is reliant on the resolution of claims that arise from these risks associated with insurance policies. In fact, insurance companies routinely adjust claims and provide indemnities to the insureds or beneficiaries. In some cases, however, the resolution of claims may falter, resulting in disputes that involve conflicting views between the insurer and insured on the eligibility of indemnity. Hence, this requires the existence of an effective and smooth mechanism that guarantees the end of such conflicts and protects the rights of the parties involved in insurance contracts. …

Phishing For Computer Fraud Insurance Coverage, Stephen Swanson

Georgia State University Law Review

Accordingly, the following note discusses the disparity between the federal circuit courts regarding the proper insurance coverage for phishing-type attacks. Part I examines the cyber threats companies face when handling sensitive transactions and customer data, as well as the coverage gap between traditional crime insurance policies and the targeted cyber insurance policies that help prevent, detect, and ultimately mitigate the damages resulting from a cybersecurity breach. Part II analyzes the current circuit split and the various contract interpretation strategies, policy considerations, and tests employed in reaching a coverage decision. Part III proposes a resolution to the overarching circuit split that …

Forum Shopping Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Claims, Chris French

Faculty Scholarship

Insurance disputes are typically governed by state law, and state insurance laws vary considerably, with some states being favorable to policyholders and others being unfavorable. With forum shopping, a plaintiff often has many choices regarding where it can bring a lawsuit, including multiple states in which to bring the case and whether to bring the case in federal or state court. Of the over 1000 COVID-19 business interruption insurance lawsuits filed thus far, more than 700 of them have been filed in, or removed to, federal court, with more than 250 of the cases filed as class actions. Many of …

America On Fire: Climate Change, Wildfires & Insuring Natural Catastrophes, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

America is on fire. The damage, destruction, and loss of life caused by wildfires have exploded over the past few decades. Nine of the ten worst fire seasons have occurred in the past fifteen years, with 2017 and 2018 being the worst years ever. Despite spending approximately $3.7 billion annually on fire suppression, more than 35,000 structures were lost to wildfires in 2017 and 2018, approximately $32 billion in property losses occurred, and more than 100 people were killed. More than forty million homes worth approximately $187 billion in the U.S. are currently at a high risk of destruction due …

Remutualization, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

Policymakers need to rediscover the organizational form of business entity as a tool of financial regulation. Recent and classic scholarship has produced evidence that financial institutions organized as alternative entity forms – including investment bank partnerships and banks and insurance companies organized as mutual or cooperatives – tend to take less risk, exploit customers/consumer less, or commit less misconduct compared to counterparts organized as investor-owned corporations. This article builds off the work of Hill and Painter on investment banks organized as partnerships, Hansmann on the history and economics of banks and insurance companies organized as mutuals and cooperatives, and other …

Cyber Insurance Today: Saving It Before It Needs Saving, Angela Nieves

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Cyber insurance, which covers a company’s losses and costs stemming from a cyberattack, represents a nearly $5 billion global market. But have stakeholders shaped a sustainable model? This article analyzes contrasting claims about the viability of cyber insurance. It proposes measures to ensure the survival of the cyber insurance market, which should be immediately addressed given the current state of the world and the fact that even pre-COVID-19, businesses worldwide stood to lose over $5.2 trillion over the next five years due to cybercrimes. Unless action is taken to mitigate the fallout from cyber events, the cyber insurance market will …

Sb 18 - Direct Primary Care, Valentin H. Dubuis, Juliana Mesa

Georgia State University Law Review

This legislation allows physicians to offer specified care for a specific time pursuant to a fixed fee. The physician cannot require more than one year’s payment upfront, and the agreement has to be terminable by either party with thirty days’ notice. Physicians do not have to provide care if the fee has not been paid or the patient has committed fraud, failed to adhere to treatment, or is in physical danger.

Law School News: A Busy, Busy Time In Admiralty Law 10-18-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law School News: Inside Rwu Law's Small 'Admiralty Empire' 10-18-2019, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Bad Company? The Rise (Again) Of Association Health Plans, Brendan Williams

The Journal of Business, Entrepreneurship & the Law

This article first examines the rule adopted by the DOL and the criticism it has drawn. It then assesses the state of the small-group insurance market for small businesses, and the flawed approach that the ACA took to assisting them. Finally it takes a look at the uncertain future for small businesses and health insurance, and it suggests new approaches

Identifying The Legitimate Role Of The Value Of A Statistical Life In Legal Contexts, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article is based on my keynote address at the American Academy of Economic and Financial Experts conference in which I examined some of the implications for legal contexts of my book, Pricing Lives: Guideposts for a Safer Society. The value of a statistical life (VSL) provides an economic measure of the efficient cost-risk tradeoff rate for mortality risk decisions. Consequently, the VSL is well suited to serving as a measure of the benefits of mortality risk reduction for government regulatory policies and for corporate risk decisions. The tort liability counterpart of this function is using the VSL to assess …

Advancing The Aquaculture Industry Through The Federal Crop Insurance Program, Matthew H. Bowen

Ocean and Coastal Law Journal

In recent times, the aquaculture industry has experienced dramatic growth. The growth of the industry is a direct result of an increase in demand for seafood, and a decrease in supply from wild fisheries. The industry, however, is also experiencing growing pains. Aquaculture species, compared to their wild counterparts, are at a higher risk of catastrophic loss from a variety of different perils. These perils make investment in the aquaculture industry significantly risky. The federal crop insurance program could be a tool that mitigates these risks, but the program was designed around terrestrial agriculture, and while aquaculture may be covered …

Terrorism Risk Insurance Act: Time To Renew . . . Or Rethink?, Jeffrey E. Thomas

Faculty Works

This paper summarizes the U.S. program for terrorism insurance, outlines its advantages and disadvantages, and describes the current proposals for extension of the program. The program, generally referred to as a “Federal Backstop,” functions in some ways that are similar to reinsurance, but it does not require participants to pay premiums ex ante. Instead uses an ex post recoupment mechanism to recover some or all of the Federal payments made under the program. This approach has the advantage of reducing the cost and increasing the availability of terrorism insurance. Some have criticized the program for its interference in market mechanisms, …

Dual Regulation Of Insurance, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

Since this country was created, the insurance industry has been principally regulated by the states with infrequent Congressional interventions. As the insurance industry has evolved in recent decades, however, individual states have become unable to adequately regulate some insurers, such as multinational insurers and foreign insurers, because they lack jurisdiction over such entities. Simply having the federal government assume responsibility for regulating insurers will not solve the current regulatory problems, however, because Congress’ past forays into regulating certain areas of insurance generally have yielded poor results. Consequently, this Article makes the novel proposal and argument that, with the creation of …

Holding Ridesharing Companies Accountable In Texas, Martha Alejandra Salas

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Cross-Subsidies: Government's Hidden Pocketbook, John Brooks, Brian Galle, Brendan S. Maher

Faculty Scholarship

Governments can use regulation to pay for public goods out of the pockets of consumers, rather than taxpayers. For example, the Affordable Care Act underwrites care for women and the infirm through higher insurance premium payments by healthy men. Building on a classic article from Richard Posner, we show that these “cross-subsidies” between consumers are a common feature of modern law, ranging from telecommunications to intellectual property to employee benefits.

Critics of the ACA, and even some of its supporters, argue that taxes would be a better choice. Taxes are said to be more transparent, and to fit better with …