Archive for December 2015

Fourteen northwestern South Dakota ranchers are suing the U.S. Forest Service for a 2013 prescribed burn that escaped its boundaries and scorched private land. Two lawsuits filed this past week in federal court in Rapid City allege that the Forest … Source: Claims Journal

You’re faced with a big disaster, like an earthquake, plus a small one – say, running out of diapers. What can you do? Cut open a plastic supermarket bag, place a small towel on it and wrap your baby up. … Source: Claims Journal

Underwriting profitability for private passenger automobile insurance has deteriorated in 2015 for many leading US writers, says Fitch Ratings. The weakening results through the first nine months of the year reverse a trend in underwriting profitability improvement since 2012. The … Source: Claims Journal

The 1990s may be over but patents from that era live on. U.S. courts are seeing a rash of lawsuits involving old and sometimes expired patents as companies try to squeeze the last bit of profits from their 20-year-old inventions. … Source: Claims Journal

The next wave of hobby drones will be wrapped in boxes underneath Christmas trees before they fill the skies. If industry sales projections come true, the holiday season will put tens of thousands of relative novices at the controls of … Source: Claims Journal

Companies that share data with the U.S. government for cyber security purposes will get more protection from consumer lawsuits under a measure piggybacked onto a massive federal spending bill unveiled in Congress on Wednesday. The cyber-security proposal, widely supported by … Source: Claims Journal

A crackdown on Florida’s “pill mills” – clinics dispensing large quantities of prescription painkillers often for cash-only and without proper medical examinations – appears to have dramatically reduced the number of overdose deaths in the state from these drugs and … Source: Claims Journal

Allstate announced a major shift for the insurance industry as it embraces drone technology to further improve customer service. The company has been participating in drone test flights for use in property claims, the company announced. Following years of independent … Source: Claims Journal

Massachusetts transit investigators looking into a runaway train are recommending that the operator be fired even as a lawyer for the driver said he denies tying a rope or cord around the train’s throttle to force it open, as authorities … Source: Claims Journal

Insurers can’t predict when catastrophes occur, but they can refine management plans to be better prepared for the next event, according to the Property Claim Services Personal Lines Planning and Response Report, a new benchmarking study published recently. The report … Source: Claims Journal