A pair of unusual winter wildfires in Southern California on Thursday burned several homes, spurred evacuations and closed a portion of the iconic Pacific Coast Highway. The two fires, one near Los Angeles and the other farther south near Laguna Beach, spread amid fierce winds, along with a continued drought and weather conditions that felt more like summer than winter, furthering fears that fire has become a year-round threat in the state.

A Tesla Model 3 crash that killed a woman was allegedly caused by failures of the Autopilot system to prevent the Model 3 from slamming into the rear of a firetruck.

A federal district court in California has refused to dismiss COVID-19 business interruption coverage filed by a concert promoter against Factory Mutual Insurance Co.

Consumer Watchdog has issued a notice saying that the California Department of Insurance (CDI) has retracted its policy to delete agency email databases – days after the consumer advocate group warned the regulator that it would threaten legal action over the email disposals.

A California law passed in the late 1980s originally meant to protect consumers is under increased scrutiny for restraining the use of telematics in auto insurance underwriting.

A California city voted Tuesday night to require gun owners to carry liability insurance in what’s believed to be the first measure of its kind in the United States.



The Silicon Valley city of about 1 million followed a trend of other Democratic-led cities that have sought to rein in violence through stricter rules. But while similar laws have been proposed, San Jose is the first city to pass one, according to Brady United, a national nonprofit that advocates against gun violence.

Council members, including several who had lost friends to gun violence, said it was a step toward dealing with gun violence that Councilman Sergio Jimenez called ‘a scourge on our society."

California prosecutors have filed two counts of vehicular manslaughter against the driver of a Tesla on Autopilot who ran a red light, slammed into another car and killed two people in 2019.

A section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles has been littered with thousands of shredded boxes, packages stolen from cargo containers that stop in the area to unload.

The NHL and 20 of its teams claimed to have lost over $1 billion over the COVID-19 pandemic, and they’re suing five of their insurance providers for reimbursement.

No employer wants to find themselves in the midst of a workers compensation matter, especially when the employee in question was injured through no fault of the employer.

This problem starts with California’s notoriously employee-friendly workers compensation rules, which requires employers to pay for employees’ medical treatment if they are hurt on the job. This holds true even in cases where the employer is not at fault and injuries were caused by a negligent third party.

Fortunately, California also gives businesses or their workers compensation carriers the right to subrogate against those negligent third parties to recover any benefits they might have paid to injured workers. Through additional litigation, employers can seek reimbursement for these paid benefits that were made on behalf of an injured employee.

The United States District Court for the Central District of California, applying California law, has held that a D&O insurer cannot rely on an excess ‘other insurance’ provision to preclude a duty to defend.

The construction industry is a key contributor to California’s economy. According to the Associated General Contractors of America, in 2019, the construction sector contributed $118.1 billion of the state’s total gross domestic product.

In its recently released annual report, the ATRA identified 8 jurisdictions on its 2021 hellholes list – which, in order, include: (1) California (with the plaintiffs’ bar taking advantage of unique California laws like the Private Attorney General Act); (2) New York City (particularly regarding Americans With Disabilities Act accessibility claims and an activist attorney general battling climate change with energy companies), (3) Georgia....

California has been a hotbed of litigation regarding COVID-19 business interruption claims. The vast majority of the trial courts have held in favor of insurers and against businesses.

Two of California’s worst wildfires in 2018 cost Allstate Corp. a half-billion dollars, but the insurance conglomerate was able to give investors some reassuring news: It had already shrunk its footprint in California by half, creating a buffer of sorts against future losses.