Insurance services and claims solutions provider Charles Taylor is launching a new US-based division that is focused on offering pre-risk and post-loss environmental services.

Known as Charles Taylor Environmental Technical Services (CT Environmental), the new business will be led by Kellie Vazquez, SVP of CT Environmental. Vazquez has 12 years of experience providing environmental services to the insurance industry.

CT Environmental will provide a full range of environmental specialty services to clients throughout the US, from its location in California. The division's services â€' all designed to meet the needs of the commercial, industrial, and residential sectors â€' will include asbestos, lead, mold, bacteria, sewage, and soot assessments, as well as indoor air quality testing.

Rarely do claims professionals play a role in limiting liability, often because a loss has already occurred by the time they receive a new matter. That is one of the biggest differentiators in specializing in cyber-related claims, according to our next most-memorable claim interviewee, Christine Flammer.

It had been simmering beneath the surface for some time. The profound increase in frequency and severity of ransomware attacks on U.S. businesses in every sector was impossible not to notice.

Companies relying on their cyber insurance policies to pay off ransomware criminals are being blamed for a recent uptick in ransomware attacks.

Late last year, Lloyd's of London announced plans to stop selling insurance for some types of fossil fuel companies by 2030.

At least one person died after a firefighting helicopter crashed Tuesday evening during a training exercise, officials say.

In his 2015 stand-up special The Comeback Kid, stand-up comedian John Mulaney joked that the government had '[become] like cool parents' when it came to marijuana.

Things are looking pretty rough for GEICO, as not only did the insurer recently suffer a data breach, but it was also discovered that the hackers responsible are using consumers' compromised information to fraudulently apply for unemployment benefits.

A Sompo International Holdings Ltd. unit has filed suit seeking a declaration it is not obligated to indemnify the helicopter company that allegedly arranged the flight in which basketball star Kobe Bryant and his daughter were killed last year.

As normality filters back into American lives after a year of lockdowns, hospitals and other institutions are busy making provisions for one aspect of that old normal they would rather consign to the past - mass shootings.

About 80 people in a city in northwest Iowa were evacuated on Sunday afternoon after part of a Union Pacific train hauling hazardous materials, including fertilizer and asphalt, derailed and then caught fire, officials said.

The Texas Senate Transportation Committee has unanimously approved a House bill that would help curb the growing trend of lawsuit abuse targeting commercial vehicles in Texas.

Colonial Pipeline Co. paid nearly $5 million to Eastern European hackers on Friday, contradicting reports earlier this week that the company had no intention of paying an extortion fee to help restore the country's largest fuel pipeline, according to two people familiar with the transaction.

The federal government issued a rare emergency declaration on Sunday after a cyberattack on a major U.S. pipeline choked the transportation of oil to the eastern U.S.
The Colonial Pipeline, responsible for the country's largest fuel pipeline, shut down all its operations Friday after hackers broke into some of its networks.

Identity theft specifically linked to unemployment jumped to astronomical levels last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from Allstate Identity Protection (AIP), Allstate Insurance's identity theft insurance business.