Insurance Law Commons^™

Ending The Never-Ending Medical Malpractice Crisis, Allen Redlich

Maine Law Review

Another nationwide outbreak of what is commonly called the medical malpractice "crisis" is spreading. Once again, as during prior episodes, the public hears of dramatic increases in the cost of malpractice insurance, of growing numbers of multimillion dollar awards, and of increases in the number of suits filed. Already several states have passed statutes in attempts to resolve the crisis. This crisis atmosphere resembles the crisis of the mid-seventies when every state enacted so-called "remedial" statutes, which failed to solve the crisis. A physician would define a "crisis" as a turning point in the course of a disease; nonmedical definitions …

Affirmative Judicial Case Management: A Viable Solution To The Toxic Product Litigation Crisis, Patrick Francis Harrigan

Maine Law Review

With increasing frequency, federal courts throughout the nation have confronted a multiplicity of "toxic tort" claims, claims for relief arising from chronic and latent illnesses or diseases allegedly caused by toxic substances. Toxic substances are substances whose manufacture, processing, distribution, use, or disposal presents or will present an unreasonable risk of injury to a person's health or to the environment. Because many of these unreasonable health risks are caused by consumer and industrial products, many toxic tort claims are actually "toxic product" claims. Examples of toxic product claims include those arising from the use, exposure to, or consumption of chemicals …

Insurance, Maren R. Cave, Jessica Phillips, Rebecca Strickland

Mercer Law Review

During this Survey period, the most important development was the Georgia General Assembly’s enactment of critical changes to the statute related to pre-suit demands in automobile cases. These changes to O.C.G.A. § 9-11-67.1 may very well mark the ultimate end of litigation in Georgia’s appellate courts related to what constitutes a binding settlement in automobile cases involving time limited demands. The Survey period also saw a number of decisions in the “first party” area where Georgia courts strictly upheld the insurance contract provisions related to suit limitations and reformation of those policies, and another decision related to “recoupment” of defense …

Feasibility Study And Implementation Of Solar-Wind Energy Integration For Green Hydrogen Production At Dar Es Salaam Port, Nassibu Nassoro Kiobya

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Florida's Homeowners Insurance Problems, Peter Molk

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

Floridians have seen dramatically rising homeowners insurance premium increases over the past several years, with year-over-year increases of forty percent or more over multiple years. The problem grew so severe that the State legislature convened a special session in 2022 to address the problem, ultimately passing several efforts designed to moderate rates. This Article reviews the evidence of Florida's experience to interrogate why the State has suffered disparately high homeowners insurance premium increases. In light of this interrogation, I critically assess the prospects for the recent legislative efforts and other suggestions to address the underlying problems. Reform efforts predominantly address …

Rethinking Prop 103'S Approach To Insurance Regulation, Lars Powell, R. J Lehmann, Ian Adams

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Managing Medicaid Managed Care, Lance Plunkett Jd, Llm

The New York State Dental Journal

There is a system in place to ensure Medicaid managed care organizations operate properly. How effective these controls are is a different issue.

A Sorry Situation, Chester J. Gary Dds, Jd

The New York State Dental Journal

Doing the right thing and apologizing to a patient for an adverse treatment outcome can, but shouldn't, increase a dentist's liability.

N Y State Dent J August-September 2024

The New York State Dental Journal

In the August-September 2024 issue, the reader will find the following feature articles:

• Success of Implant Placement in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus
• Effects of Mandatory COVID-19 Testing Policy on No-Show Rates for Aerosol-Generating Procedures
• Heterotopic Bone Formation after TMJ Surgery
• Rural Oral Health Access Disparities in New York State

This issue includes regular columns with regional news impacting the New York membership including editorial and perspectives columns, legal, association activities, component news, continuing education opportunities, and classifieds.

Choice Of Law Issues In Eleventh Circuit Insurance Cases Arising From Lex Loci Contractus, Tom Schulte, Andrea Defield, Jorge Aviles

University of Miami Law Review

A growing number of cases have emerged from the Eleventh Circuit struggling with the application of lex loci contractus to choice-of-law issues in the insurance context. And while the federal courts continue to struggle, the state courts in the Eleventh Circuit have not yet offered definitive guidance on when to apply lex loci contractus, and when to depart from it. In light of this choice-of-law issue, which can be and often is outcome determinative, this Article offers practical guidance on how policyholders can avoid application of an unfavorable state’s law to their insurance dispute, both before and after litigation …

Practiced Peril: The Flawed Role Of Experience In Accidental Death Determinations, Casey M. Corvino

Connecticut Law Review

Words often carry an intuitive meaning that defies explicit definition. While this vagueness typically poses no issue in our daily lives, it presents distinct challenges within the legal realm where words and their definitions wield the power to influence the course of justice. One abstract concept is notoriously elusive: what is an accident? Despite the apparent simplicity of identifying what is commonly understood implicitly, there are inherent challenges in “giving substance to a concept which is largely intuitive.”

The Wickman framework was crafted to navigate these challenges, recognizing that an insured’s background, experience, and skill in a particular activity may …

I’Ll Huff, And I’Ll Puff, And I’Ll Blow Your Parol Evidence Down: The Eleventh Circuit Explains Why The Plain Text Of An Insurance Policy Wins In The Face Of Contractual Ambiguity, Chloe E. Bonds

Mercer Law Review

Imagine that a small business in sunny, central Florida is evaluating its insurance policy. The business notices that the policy includes seemingly unnecessary coverage for losses caused by landslides. Before the end of the current year, the business contacts its insurance agency and successfully negotiates to remove the existing landslide coverage from next year’s policy. Following the negotiations, the agent issues an updated insurance binder reflecting the change. Although the insurance agency is aware that the business no longer wants landslide coverage, the principal policy issued after negotiations conspicuously does not include any language regarding the coverage or exclusion of …

The Harm In The Fiduciary Myth, Kelli Alces Williams

BYU Law Review

Fiduciary law has become the doctrine of choice in scholarship aiming to protect vulnerable parties from powerful decisionmakers. But fiduciary law cannot fill all the gaps in those impersonal, public relationships because the beneficiary class is large, disparate, and widely dispersed. Public leaders and decision makers cannot zealously pursue the interests of all parties vulnerable to their decision making and they are often driven by various personal interests in choosing which set of beneficiary interests to prioritize. The persistent myth that leaders of large groups are fiduciaries and that fiduciary obligation is the answer to all power imbalance problems harms …

We Don't Talk About Insurance (No, No, No!), Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

Kenneth S. Abraham and Catherine M. Sharkey's The Glaring Gap in Tort Theory has a dramatic title. The article, which is about the unheralded and unappreciated role that liability insurance plays in tort, promises to make good on two claims-first, that the major (or a major) "missing piece" in modern tort scholarship is liability insurance, and second, once this missing piece is identified, it is impossible to ever see tort law the same way again.

"I Am Become Death, The Destroyer Of Worlds": Applying Strict Liability To Artificial Intelligence As An Abnormally Dangerous Activity, Renee Henson

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled tools have produced a myriad of injuries, up to and including death. This burgeoning technology has caused scholars to ask questions, such as, How do we create a legal framework for AI? Because AI creators have acknowledged that even they do not know the capacities of their technology for good or bad outcomes, this Article argues that an existing framework, strict liability, is an appropriate fit for harms arising from this new technology because a party need not prove negligence to prevail. Strict liability was uniquely developed to handle those activities that are “abnormally dangerous.” An abnormally …

Risky Business: A Review Essay On The Law & Economics Of Selection In Insurance Markets, Peter Siegelman

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Improving The Market For Homeowners Insurance, Jay M. Feinman

Connecticut Insurance Law Journal

Markets need information, and better information produces better markets. Consumers need information about products’ features, price, and quality to shop effectively. When they have that information, their buying choices spur competition that produces better products with desirable features at lower prices. The market for homeowners insurance provides reasonable information on price but lacks basic information about the features of policies and company quality. Consumers have little access to information about the coverage terms of policies being offered or the quality of companies that are offering them, so they often make poor choices in purchasing homeowners insurance. The results can be …

Is Insurance "Just A Contract" Or A "Just Contract"?, Chaim Saiman

Faculty Publications

Courts never tire of saying an insurance policy is “just a contract” and subject to ordinary rules of contract law. Contract here signals a plain language approach that strives for formal neutrality between the parties. Yet courts also frequently rely on a narrative that an insurance policy strives to be a “just contract” with special pro-policyholder rules that reach beyond the plain language.

How is insurance simultaneously “just a contract” and a “just contract?” Prior scholarship has noted the confusion, but this Article aims to reconcile the dueling narratives. When the issue relates to scope or breadth of coverage—whether a …

Casinos, Covid, And Coverage: Jurisprudential And Insurance Implications Of A Litigation Pandemic, Jeffrey W. Stempel

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Modular Bankruptcy: Toward A Consumer Scheme Of Arrangement, John A.E. Pottow

Cardozo Law Review

In the world of cross-border corporate insolvency, those in the know are familiar with the increasingly popular scheme of arrangement, the British quasi-reorganization procedure that allows a company to restructure some, but not all, of its debt. The typical scheme effects a corporate balance sheet reshuffling by supermajoritarian approval (and judicial “sanction”) but often leaves other debt, such as the trade, untouched. A key conceptual component of the scheme mechanism is its intentional modularity, called by some its “selectivity.” It does not require a comprehensive reckoning of all claims against a given debtor, only some. The scheme has proved popular—so …