Insurance Journal - Rumors that California is considering selling the State Compensation Insurance Fund to help close the state budget gap are true, but government officials said the idea has amounted to no more than discussion at this point. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Administration is predicting a budget shortfall of $3.3 billion in the current fiscal year, which will grow to $14.5 billion next year.

Insurance Journal - The Supreme Court of Oklahoma on April 15 upheld a finding by a previous three-judge panel that an employer is liable for an injury sustained by an employee of the company’s subcontractor because the principal employer had failed to verify proof of workers’ compensation coverage on the part of the subcontractor. The Supreme Court clarified that its opinion was subject to revision or withdrawal until published in the permanent law reports.

Insurance Journal - California State Compensation Insurance Fund has been facing many changes recently, but it has no intent to be the dominant player in the state workers’ compensation insurance market, according to Janet Frank, SCIF’s CEO. Looking back at the Fund’s 94-year history, SCIF has an "average sweet spot of 18 to 24 percent market share," she said.

Triad Business News - Key Risk, a leading provider of workers compensation insurance products and services for employers throughout the Eastern United States, introduces MasterKey Connects™, a new risk management platform developed by the company to connect Key Risk clients to an innovative and interactive system to access up-to-date information about their workers’ compensation claims.

Business Insurance - Public policy does not bar a liability insurer from covering punitive damages for an employer’s gross negligence, the Supreme Court of Texas ruled in a workers compensation case. The Feb. 15 ruling came in the case of Fairfield Insurance Co. vs. Stephens Martin Paving L.P., which involved a worker, Roy Edward Bennett, who died in 2002 when a piece of equipment overturned.

Insurance Journal - A new study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) has found that medical expenses reported by auto injury claimants continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation. Average claimed economic losses (which include expenses for medical care, lost wages and other out-of-pocket expenditures) for bodily injury claimants grew 9 percent annualized, from $5,520 in 2002 to $8,522 in 2007.

Business Insurance - Montana’s Supreme Court recently ruled in two separate workers compensation cases that the employees were due insurance for injuries. On Thursday, a unanimous Supreme Court agreed with a Montana District Court ruling that Maril BeVan’s injuries sustained in May 2005 car crash should be covered by her employer, Blackfoot Telephone Communications in Missoula, Mont., as they occurred while she was on a paid 15-minute break.

Insurance Journal - While 2007 was a surprisingly calm year for hurricanes, that doesn’t mean Mother Nature didn’t have a tantrum or two. In 2007, the West faced its share of disasters, with freezes, floods and fires making news headlines from California all the way to Colorado.

Insurance Journal - Weather, directly or indirectly, was a driving force in the insurance markets for the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas in 2007. With the exception of Arkansas, throughout the year the South Central states dealt with insurance issues arising from severe weather that occurred during 2007 or in previous years.

Insurance Journal - High heat, changing winds put reputations on the line. 1. Florida’s gamble "It’s all about rates," maintained Sam Miller, of the industry’s Florida Insurance Council. Florida lawmakers in January passed controversial legislation they hoped would lower Floridians’ skyrocketing property insurance rates.