With holiday shopping in full swing and Christmas a week away, there are growing concerns over the safety of one of the season’s hottest items – hoverboards. The year’s “must have” gift harkens back to the popular ‘80s movie Back To The Future II and has captured the imagination of young and old alike, their popularity…
DetailsOccasionally, we post articles on legal subjects other than insurance subrogation because they are of such a wide interest that it would not be right to avoid comment on them. Such a topic is the meteoric growth of daily fantasy sports (DFS) such as DraftKings and FanDuel. In 2015, nearly 60 million people played fantasy…
DetailsEvery year in North America insurers pay out tens of millions of claim dollars resulting from fires and feed damage caused by the spontaneous combustion and heating of hay mow – a pile of hay stored in or near a barn. Spontaneous combustion is the result of a chemical reaction that occurs when combustible materials…
DetailsA new Georgia Supreme Court decision has made it easier to defend third-party tort actions involving injured employees by reducing the recoveries when employer negligence contributes the work-related injury. Walker v. Tensor Mach., Ltd., 2015 WL 7135149 (Ga. 2015). Jock L. Walker was injured at work in August 2010 while he operated a machine that…
DetailsDuring the brutal winter of 1620-21, Miles Standish, the English military officer hired by the Pilgrims as military advisor for Plymouth Colony and one of the Mayflower passengers, played a leading role in the administration and defense of the colony. His wife, Rose, suffered from sickness and fever throughout most of the winter, and when…
DetailsThe owner of the vintage 1968 57-foot Chris Craft Constellation Yacht could barely recognize the custom mahogany plank craftsmanship of his boat through the blackened ash and the tears. Yet it was the owner’s insurance company who should have been crying. After being put in dry storage for the winter at a local marina, a…
DetailsIn the normal course of American jurisprudence, legislation is passed and courts decide cases according to the laws that have been passed. It seems that in Massachusetts, they have it backwards. Section 15 of the Massachusetts’ Workers’ Compensation Act provides unequivocally that in third-party tort cases, “the sum recovered shall be for the benefit of…
DetailsThe Delaware Department of Insurance (“DOI”) is threatening to take action against those who do not abide by state mandatory arbitration law. On September 1, 2015, the Delaware DOI released a bulletin to remind all insurers writing the coverages required under 21 Del. C. § 2118 that they are required to submit to mandatory arbitration…
DetailsMatthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. (“MWL”) is pleased to announce that Ashton Kirsch has joined the firm as an insurance litigation associate. Ashton’s practice areas include insurance litigation, subrogation, workers’ compensation, health insurance and ERISA. Ashton obtained his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History in 2011 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Madison,…
DetailsWe receive many questions from clients regarding Minnesota subrogation claims, including relevant statutes of limitations. One of the most frequent questions I receive has to do with the Minnesota statute of limitations for personal injury actions. For subrogation professionals outside Minnesota, its statutory statutes of limitations may not be clear. A quick, surface reading of…
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