Andrew Gallotto,  a boiler repairman, was severely injured when he was servicing a boiler at a building owned by Parkview Condominium Trust.  He sued Parkview.  Parkview’s primary insurer, Granite State Insurance Company, retained insurance defense counsel to represent Parkview.  The Granite State policy had a $1 million limit.  Great American Insurance Company provided excess coverage for losses up to $5 million above the Granite State policy.  The insurance defense attorney hired by Granite State sent…

Kailee Higgins, a 20 year old woman, worked as an exotic dancer at a nightclub in Worcester called Centerfolds II, owned by P.J.D. Entertainment of Worcester, Inc.  In November, 2010, she completed a shift at 2 AM. Within minutes of beginning to drive away she was in an accident.  She suffered serous and permanent injuries including traumatic brain injury.  P.J.D notified its insurer, Capitol Specialty Insurance Corporation.  Capitol referred the claim to Norfield & Associates,…

Norma Ezell, Leonard Whitley, and Erica Biddings settled wrongful death and personal injury claims in exchange for structured settlement agreements with the defendants’ insurer, Lexington Insurance Company.  The settlements provided that Lexington would purchase annuities from which the claimants would receive specific periodic payments. The settlement agreement for Ezell and Whitley provided that $200,000 would be “annuitized” by Lexington for the purpose of financing periodic payments, and indicated the exact amount they would receive each…

When I started practicing law  I was puzzled by Massachusetts Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d), which provides that after judgment “costs shall be allowed as of course to the prevailing party.”  It struck me as something that every prevailing party should pursue. Although costs don’t include attorney’s fees, litigation costs such as expert witness fees can be huge in a hard-fought case of significant damages. Older and wiser attorneys explained to me that costs in…

CNBC answers your questions here. …

In this Pacific Standard article writer Jack Denton  complains that the insurance industry will bring about the downfall of football.  Why?  Because “with the cost of concussion and CTE [a degenerative brain disease caused by concussions] lawsuits mounting, the NFL has been unable to find a company to provide general-liability insurance to cover head injuries, and struggled mightily to find workers’ compensation coverage — only securing it at tremendous cost.” Not only that, but…

Ransomware “kidnaps” data on a computer system and holds it hostage until the owner of the system pays a ransom.  Slate has an interesting article on the pros and (in Slate’s view, mostly) cons of insurance coverage for ransomware. …