Residents in the McKinney fire burn area sued PacifiCorp this week, alleging that sparks from the utility's high-voltage transmission lines and other equipment ignited the deadly blaze last month near the California-Oregon border.

It appears that there is a growing trend throughout the United States that is reducing barriers and making it easier for insureds to establish their bad faith claims against their insurers, thereby expanding the scope of an insurer's potential exposure to claims of bad faith.

Social inflation, or the rise of insurers' costs to cover claims above general economic inflation, is a growing threat to insurance affordability. The struggle to quantify social inflation's causes is one reason policymakers have yet to reduce its impact.

Verdict amounts across the country are on the rise, due in part to the phenomenon of social inflation and the success of reptile theory-style arguments. An insurer's potential extra-contractual liability for these verdicts and related damages continues to substantially increase a carrier's exposure in litigation.

Aloha Petroleum, a subsidiary of oil and gas giant Sunoco, has sued an AIG unit, accusing the insurer of breaching insurance contracts by refusing to defend it in a pair of lawsuits filed by the Hawaiian government alleging that the gas chain contributed to climate change.

When a computed tomography (CT) scanner was destroyed as a result of two fires at a storage facility, claims were presented and suits filed against the warehouse, Blocker Storage. Associated paid its limit of liability and received a release from the insured for Associated and all of the related companies.

The general liability market has changed beyond recognition since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ever-increasing economic and social inflation, medical expenses and litigation financing have all resulted in spiraling claim losses and legal costs, which continue to outstrip rates.

As the crypto market crashes, some insurance companies are stepping up efforts to exclude coverage for crypto-related risks under a range of insurance policies. But because crypto is still new, insurers are having a hard time defining and pricing the risk.

A Delaware bankruptcy judge has approved parts of the Boy Scouts of America's reorganization plan but rejected other provisions, saying in a recent ruling that the organization has 'decisions to make.' One part Judge Laurie Selber Silverstein refused to approve was $250 million coming from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to help settle claims alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders.

There is a hole in the dam. Prior to June 14, every one of the 77 federal and 44 state court appellate decisions interpreting the meaning of 'direct physical loss or damage' in a standard-form commercial property insurance policy had ruled against the policyholder.

Paramount has reached a confidential settlement with Chubb, its insurer, over claims arising from repeated COVID-19 production delays on 'Mission: Impossible 7.' The studio sued in August 2021, alleging that the insurer was trying to limit its losses to just $1 million.

All carriers and brokers encourage their insureds to read and understand their policies. Claims resolution relies on all the work after that. At best, when a claim occurs it is swiftly paid and insureds understand their policy language and feel protected by it.

After a construction project along Volunteer Parkway in Bristol partially collapsed in late 2020, the project's owner and insuring agency are at odds due to a disputed payout that could total in the millions of dollars.

Twenty men who say they were sexually abused decades ago as students at a northwest Georgia private school are seeking $345 million in damages from the school's insurers.

The wife of a decorated New York City firefighter is suing the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, after a tree on the property fell on the family car and killed her husband, according to a lawsuit.