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How to Pitch a Story
March 30, 2007
Pitching a story for our newsletters.
Movers & Shakers
March 29, 2007
News about lawyers and law firms in the insurance industry.
Case Briefs
March 29, 2007
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
Asbestos Injuries and the 'Completed Operations' Provision
March 29, 2007
In asbestos insurance coverage litigation, the extent of an insurer's liability to its insured often turns on whether the court determines that the underlying asbestos injury took place while the insured was conducting operations, such as asbestos installation or tear out, or after such operations were completed. This distinction is important to the insurer because under many general liability policies injuries taking place during operations may be held as not subject to aggregate limits, whereas injuries taking place after completion typically are held subject to aggregate limits.
Determining the Financial Condition of an Insurance Carrier
March 29, 2007
Punitive damages long have been awarded 'to punish wrongdoers and thereby deter the commission of wrongful acts ... ' <i>Neal v. Farmers Ins. Exch.</i>, 21 Cal. 3d 910, 928 n.13, 148 Cal. Rptr. 389, 399 n.13 (1978). In order to accurately determine how large a punitive damage award should be, the financial condition of a defendant must be evaluated. If a punitive damage award is not large enough, then it is not likely to have any deterrent effect. Instead, because it simply would be a cost of doing business, it actually may serve as an incentive to further wrongful conduct. Therefore, in order to accurately determine how much of a punitive damage award is enough, but not too much, the financial condition of an insurance carrier needs to be evaluated. <i>Id.</i> at 928 (the wealth of defendant must be considered or else 'the function of deterrence ... will not be served if the wealth of the defendant allows him to absorb the award with little or no discomfort'); <i>Adams v. Murakami</i>, 54 Cal. 3d 105, 111-12, 284 Cal. Rptr. 318, 321 (1991) ('The most important question is whether the amount of the punitive damages award will have deterrent effect &mdash; without being excessive ... This balance cannot be made absent evidence of the defendant's financial condition.').
Contaminated Food Scares Raise Myriad Insurance Issues
March 29, 2007
Three instances of contaminated food with potentially wide-ranging impacts have received national media attention in the past six months.
April issue in PDF format
March 29, 2007
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Case Notes
March 29, 2007
Highlights of the latest product liability cases from around the country.
Lawyers' Detective Work Pays Off
March 29, 2007
When they got the case, Miami attorneys Thomas and Elizabeth Culmo had virtually no information about the allegedly defective motor scooter that had caused their client a serious spinal injury.
The Consumer Expectation Test: Fostering UnreasonableExpectations of Safety
March 29, 2007
Part One of this series discussed the impact of consumer expectations with respect to electronic stability control systems in the auto industry. This month's installment addresses unreasonable expectations with respect to antilock braking systems.

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