1st Circ. Backs Insurer In Pregnancy Bias Judgment Coverage

By Danielle Ferguson

An insurer does not have to pay a tech company's $300,000 judgment in an employment action alleging a worker experienced discrimination and retaliation during her pregnancy, the First Circuit said Tuesday, ruling the company first received notice of the claim before the policy period.

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11th Circ. Says Insurer's Appeal Is Moot After Settlement

By Carolina Bolado

The Eleventh Circuit has dismissed Mt. Hawley Insurance Co.'s appeal of a ruling requiring it to defend a subcontractor in a wrongful death lawsuit, saying the settlement of the underlying suit in a Florida state court divested the federal appeals court of jurisdiction.

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Lindberg Sidekick 'Haunted' By $2B Fraud Gets 2 Years

By Hayley Fowler

The former right-hand man to convicted insurance mogul Greg Lindberg was sentenced Wednesday to two years in federal prison for his role in a $2 billion scheme that prosecutors say defrauded thousands of policyholders.

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Newrez Pays $15.5M Over Force-Placed Insurance Charges

By Gina Kim

Rithm Capital-owned mortgage servicer Newrez LLC will pay $15.5 million to resolve allegations that force-placed insurance charges were erroneously levied against customers, following a multistate mortgage loan servicing examination, according to an announcement Wednesday from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

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Rising Star: Cooley's Robert Jacques

By Eli Flesch

Cooley LLP insurance group lead Robert Jacques helped advise pharmaceutical giant Merck on coverage for damages from the NotPetya cyberattack, earning him a spot among the insurance attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Feds Enter FCA Suit, Say 3 Health Cos. Overbilled Medicare

By Nadia Dreid

The federal government has intervened in a False Claims Act suit accusing a trio of Colorado healthcare companies of conspiring to file inflated claims for services they never rendered in order to get more money from Medicare and Tricare.

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Bridal Shop's Fire Coverage Suit Should Be Axed, Judge Says

By Hope Patti

A state court finding that insurers needn't cover a contractor in an underlying suit over fire damage to a bridal shop bars the shop from pursuing coverage from the carriers for a $38 million judgment against their policyholder, a federal judge said in recommending the suit's dismissal.

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Insurer Says Property Owner's Hail Claim Lacks Proof

By Danielle Ferguson

An insurer says a property owner's request that a Tennessee federal court declare that its building was damaged in a "significant weather event" improperly asks the court to rule on competing expert opinions on the storm's severity, rather than any legal claims in the $10 million coverage dispute.

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Moving Co. Says Chubb Owes Coverage For Employee Theft

By Hope Patti

A moving company said its insurer wrongfully refused to cover a loss resulting from a former manager's fabrication of time sheets for an independent contractor in exchange for kickbacks, telling a Washington state court that the scheme triggered its policy's $2 million employee theft coverage.

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Anti-DEI Group Asks FTC To Probe Law Fellowship Program

By Dorothy Atkins

An advocacy organization against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives filed an antitrust complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Wednesday, accusing Sponsors for Educational Opportunity of engaging in anticompetitive practices by allegedly colluding on DEI metrics and falsely advertising its program.

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Baker Botts Atty Cleared Of Defamation In Inventor's Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Thursday tossed a defamation claim against a Baker Botts LLP patent attorney after agreeing with a magistrate judge's conclusion that an inventor had not shown that the lawyer's comments to a reporter were defamatory.

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NYC Bar Committee Calls For Nationwide AI Rules Framework

By Andrea Keckley

A New York City Bar Association committee concluded in a policy paper published Wednesday that artificial intelligence tools "may assist legal work but cannot substitute for professional legal judgment," calling for a national framework to be built into the Model Rules of Professional Conduct governing its use.

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Trump Picks Ex-Arkansas SG, Walmart Lawyer For 8th Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump has announced that he's looking to elevate Judge Lee Rudofsky of the Eastern District of Arkansas to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

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State Farm Attys Admit Filing Motions Full Of AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

A law firm representing State Farm has admitted that its pretrial motions contained citations to nonexistent cases and legal quotes, errors that were seemingly "hallucinations" generated by AI software designed for lawyers and caught by the plaintiff's attorneys as they prepared for trial in a California state court case about fire damage coverage.

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Brief

DOJ Fraud Division To Reach 500 Staffers This Month

By Courtney Bublé

By the end of the month, there will be about 500 attorneys and staff in the U.S. Department of Justice's new fraud division, with more to come as time goes on.

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JP Ward Attorney Exodus Delays Pa. Labor Trafficking Suit

By Matthew Santoni

A "staffing disruption" at the Pittsburgh law firm J.P. Ward & Associates led the firm to request a stay of a labor-trafficking case against hotels in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, after the firm was reduced to one attorney and two staff members, according to court filings.

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