The Robins Kaplan Insurance Insight

The Insurance Insight newsletter delivers practical content to help you navigate the current challenges and latest developments in the insurance industry. This newsletter is curated by the women of Robins Kaplan with the goal of celebrating women in the profession and exploring topics of general interest in the insurance field. 

Vol. 2, No. 4

Winter 2019

In this edition of The Robins Kaplan Insurance Insight, we focus on staying ahead of the curve in managing carrier bad faith liability by providing useful evaluations on recent cases and important statutory changes involving insurer claim handling from states across the country, including Massachusetts, New York, California, and Georgia. In addition, we continue to monitor issues relating to artificial intelligence by commenting on the tensions created by attempting to regulate data protection in an effort to educate the industry on the risks associated with AI, and guard against bad faith liability. Staying abreast of these developments is the first line of defense against future liability for bad faith and unfair claims handling moving into 2020.

We thank you for your readership and hope you find this year-end edition interesting and informative.

In This Issue

  • 2019 Case Developments: Are Massachusetts Insurers Required To Be Perfect In An Imperfect World?
  • Artificial Intelligence v. General Data Protection Regulation: Complex Risks in Changing Times
  • Empire State of Mind: New York Bad Faith Update
  • Hot off the Presses: California Further Regulates Out-of-State Adjusters in the Wake of Record-Breaking Catastrophic Losses
  • “That Settles It”: The Georgia Supreme Court Provides Clarity Regarding an Insurer’s Duty to Settle
Can missteps in claim handling cause Massachusetts insurers to be held liable for bad faith? Do Massachusetts courts hold insurers to a standard of perfection? See how the 2019 cases answer these important questions.
Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) is a complicated technology developed with data. This saddles AI it with a host of potential privacy regulations, including Europe’s data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). Understanding the liabilities that can arise at the intersection of technology and privacy is a first step to avoiding bad faith missteps. This article highlights three compliance tensions between AI and the GDPR and how carriers are responding to these risks that can carry steep regulatory penalties.
While there remains no bad faith cause of action in New York, a recent Appellate Division case out of the First Department makes plain that an insured need not meet a heightened pleading standard with respect to consequential damages
In response to record-breaking fire losses in 2017, the California Governor signed the Insurance Adjuster Act of 2019 into law on October 3, 2019, which now takes immediate effect to govern the use of out-of-state adjusters to adjust claims in the event of declared emergencies.
New guidance from the Georgia Supreme Court re: an insurer’s duty to settle

Vol. 2, No. 3

Spring 2019

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