In an interesting case from Indiana, a court recently ruled that language in the insurer’s “quotes” for coverage in a crime policy led the insured to believe that losses for computer hacking would be covered under the policy if the insured purchased coverage. The case, Metal Pro Roofing, LLC v. Cincinnati Insurance Company, 2019 WL 3756738, found that the quotes provided to the insured stated: Business owners typically think of your buildings, inventory, furniture, office…

In its second quarter Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Allscripts addressed its announced agreement in principle with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve investigations into certain alleged practices of Practice Fusion, an electronic health records (EHR) vendor acquired by Allscripts in February 2018 for $100 million. Allscripts indicated the agreement is still subject to further negotiation and government approval, and would likely include additional non-monetary terms, including a deferred prosecution agreement, if a finalized…

In another example of a data breach allegedly caused by a vendor, Choice Hotels is contacting approximately 700,000 of its customers regarding a data breach caused by a third-party vendor that “copied the impacted data from our environment without authorization” to its server. While the data was being transferred to the third-party vendor’s server, it was accessible on the internet for a few days. According to Choice Hotels, although much of the information was “fake”…

This month, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has entered into a settlement with SimplyVital Health, Inc., a blockchain company that offered and sold approximately $6.3 million worth of securities to the public. The SEC alleged that the plan to conduct an initial coin offering (ICO) to raise money to develop a “healthcare-related blockchain ecosystem” was done without proper registration with the SEC. According to the SEC’s Order, SimplyVital Health, Inc. publicly…

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave the go-ahead for the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) to conduct beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations. The KDOT team, which includes Kansas State University Polytechnic, Westar Energy and Iris Automation,  will fly a nine-mile track to evaluate technologies for power line inspections in rural Kansas without monitoring the drone by visual observers or ground-based radar. Westar Energy’s senior unmanned aerial systems (UAS) coordinator said,…

Last week, the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department in North Dakota received a four-year waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate drones over people. The Department will routinely conduct drone operations over people for purposes of public safety and monitoring. Currently, the Department has five drones –all equipped with a parachute recovery system. Specifically, the Department says it will use the drones to photograph, measure and document complicated crash scenes, which will remove troopers…

I have the great pleasure to present annually to doctors who are in their fellowship (which means they are post-med school and continuing their training in a particular specialty) about lawyerly things before they go out into the real world. I have been doing it for years for an old friend of mine who is their attending physician. I love being with these bright, young and very talented individuals who are eager to help people…