NJ Justices Back Coverage Exclusion Reservation Of Rights

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Monday said an insurer doesn't waive its right to rely on a policy exclusion after initially defending a claim, backing Berkley Insurance Co. in a coverage dispute stemming from self-dealing suits against a pharmaceutical company and its chairman.

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Agencies Pitch Employers Offering Voluntary Fertility Benefits

By Kellie Mejdrich

Federal agencies overseeing employer-provided health coverage proposed new rules aimed at expanding workers' access to coverage for infertility treatments and related health conditions by letting employers offer voluntary fertility health benefit policies for procedures such as in vitro fertilization.

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ChatGPT Suit Points To Ups And Downs Of Pro Se AI Use

By Cara Bayles

A recent lawsuit against OpenAI highlights many of the hopes and anxieties about pro se litigants using generative artificial intelligence to churn out legal arguments. The technology raises concerns about confidentiality, hallucinations and ethical issues, but some access-to-justice advocates worry the lawsuit may hinder technology that might democratize legal services.

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Mich. Providers Say Jury Must Weigh Allstate RICO Claims

By Danielle Ferguson

Medical providers accused of scheming to fraudulently bill for unnecessary or unrendered treatments under the Michigan No-Fault Act have asked a federal judge to reject Allstate's bid for a pretrial win, arguing a jury should decide whether the providers intended to defraud the insurer.

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Insurer Says Late Notice Warrants Repayment For Crash Deal

By Hope Patti

The excess insurer for a construction company said it is entitled to recoup amounts it contributed to settle an underlying crash dispute that resulted in a $17.3 million verdict against its policyholder, telling a California federal court it was prejudiced by the company's "extremely late reporting" of the incident.

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Insurer Must Cover Water Damage At Ind. School, Court Told

By Hope Patti

An Indiana-based Christian school said it is entitled to tap into more than $12 million in coverage for a sprinkler system leak and resulting water damage that left its building uninhabitable, telling a federal court that its insurer has wrongfully limited coverage to $10,000 under a flood sublimit.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week handled a varied mix of settlement approvals, political office disputes, transaction fights, emergency injunction bids and questions over how far the court can go to preserve records for litigation outside Delaware.

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Brief

Colorado Justices Decline To Rehear Insurer Cooperation Suit

By Rachel Konieczny

The Colorado Supreme Court denied Monday a policyholder's bid for the court to rehear his case after the justices dismissed his claims last month and limited the reach of a Colorado law addressing procedural requirements for insurers asserting failure-to-cooperate defenses against policyholders.

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Navigating Insurance And Contract Risks Amid Hormuz Crisis

The Strait of Hormuz has become a legal choke point where contractual obligations, insurance coverage and international law intersect, underscoring for maritime lawyers the importance of proactive contract drafting, rigorous policy review and close engagement with clients, say attorneys at Holland & Knight.

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Heppner Ruling Left AI Privilege Risk For Lawyers Unresolved

While a New York federal judge’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner resolved a privilege question surrounding client-side artificial intelligence use, it did not address how to mitigate the risks that can arise when confidential information enters the operative context of an AI system used by an attorney, says Jianfei Chen at Quarles & Brady​​​​​​​.

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How They Won It

Attys For Tufts Profs Didn't Blink In A Tenure Standoff

By Julie Manganis

When Jennifer Henricks and Kevin Peters first learned what was happening to tenured professors at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston a few years ago, they knew that what was at stake involved more than just a dispute over the terms of a contract.

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Palestinian Ex-Associate Slaps DLA Piper With Bias Claim

By Lynn LaRowe

DLA Piper has been hit with a federal civil rights lawsuit in Illinois from a former summer associate alleging discrimination, a hostile work environment and retaliation based on her identity as a Palestinian, Gazan, Arab and Muslim woman.

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Fired Immigration Judge Says Trump Can't Skirt Bias Laws

By Grace Elletson

A former immigration judge urged a D.C. federal court not to throw out her bias suit challenging her firing, arguing the U.S. Department of Justice was pushing the "breathtaking proposition" that the president was empowered to commit unlawful discrimination.

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Law Student Can't Get School To Nix Kirk Comment Discipline

By Mike Curley

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday said the court cannot force Texas Tech University's leaders to rescind a reprimand against a law student who allegedly celebrated following the death of Charlie Kirk, as the university has sovereign immunity.

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Michigan Dems Noncommittal On Trump's Judicial Pick

By Courtney Bublé

Michigan's two Democratic senators played it coy on Tuesday when asked if they would support the district court nominee for their state that the president announced the night before.

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PayPal Settles Gov't DEI Probe With Small Biz Program

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that it has reached a settlement with PayPal Inc. to end an investigation into what the department said was a discriminatory investment program for Black- and minority-owned businesses.

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