Artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting many industries, and it will have a growing effect on lawyers. Insurers’ lawyers may be among the first affected. AI provides efficiencies. These efficiencies are important to insurers. Lawyers will be pushed to use AI.

On October 20, 2024, several significant consumer protection laws will go into effect, directly affecting healthcare providers throughout New York State. Introduced through the FY 2025 Executive Budget, these new laws reshape how providers must handle patient consent to pay for medical services and the use of credit cards for payment.

Separate Consent for Payment

New York State Courts and our judicial system in general can be complex and difficult to navigate for unrepresented individuals and even practitioners at times. Several recent initiatives have made attempts to ease some of these burdens in the Surrogate’s Court.

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Reprinted with permission of the New York State Bar

This article discusses the sensitive topic of how to know when it’s time to relinquish the car keys once people realize they are no longer able to drive safely.

As we age, we may start dreading the eventual “driving discussion” our children may feel obligated to have with us, especially if there is an onset

No health insurance benefit program, no matter how high profile, is immune to the temptations of insurance fraud. In the past, multiple former NFL players pleaded guilty to defrauding the NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account Plan. According to the Justice Department, the defendants submitted about $2.9 million in false and fraudulent claims for expensive medical

Southern District Holds Insured Not Entitled To Judgment On Pleadings As To Duty To Defend Because Extrinsic Evidence May Show Duty Is Terminated

Color Techniques, Inc. (CTI) sold ingredients used in cosmetic formulations and was insured by Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company under a series of Environmental Protection Insurance Coverage Package policies. The insurer sued CTI,

In our previous article, we described the due diligence process, including what a buyer would look for in your practice. Once due diligence is under way, the next step is the purchase agreement, which is usually prepared by the buyer’s attorney.

A purchase agreement is the main document for the transaction and describes its structure.

Claudia Pius’s article, “Recent Efforts to Increase Access to Justice for Practitioners and Parties,” was published in the NYSBA Trusts and Estates Law Section Journal.

Click here to read the full article.

When a business leases commercial space, it is common practice for the landlord to request that the company provide
a personal guaranty, a protective measure taken to ensure landlords have recourse against a commercial lessee if there is a default under the lease. In this way, landlords mitigate financial losses.

A personal guaranty gives

In this month’s update, we discuss Russian-seized planes, Starbucks-caused traffic jams, a squabble over the use of a family name, a restaurant’s pandemic-based loss, a poorly built house, and whether insurance covers any of these claims.

We begin with the restaurant’s business interruption claim.  There, the California Supreme Court had to decide whether a virus

Most closely held businesses, whether organized as a C or S corporation, LLC or partnership, have (or should have) a buy-sell agreement. A buy-sell agreement addresses what happens to an owner’s interest in the business when the owner dies.

Many of these agreements provide that the business may or must purchase the deceased owner’s interest.

Fourth Department Finds That Insurer Failed To Meet Its Burden Of Proving That Insureds Failed To Cooperate

Merchants Preferred Insurance Company filed a declaratory judgment action in New York seeking a declaration that it had no duty to defend or to indemnify its insureds in an underlying Florida personal injury action arising from a

On June 7, 2024, Bernard Condon, an Associated Press reporter, authored the article, “Zombies: Ranks of world’s most debt-hobbled companies are soaring, and not all will survive.”

Condon’s article details zombie companies (Zs) so laden with debt that they are on the brink of collapse, barely able to pay even the interest on their loans. They

We touch upon various issues in our August insurance update.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts considers the meaning of “surface waters” and whether the sublimit for floods applies when pooled water on a roof infiltrates a building.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals considers whether a pollution exclusion applies to a gasoline leak at a

Even the best company is not perfect. Mix ups, mathematical errors, transposing numbers, forgetting to sign a batch production, a supplier mix-up, or any one of an almost infinite potential glitches in the very complex processes involved in making a dietary supplement can occur because human beings are not perfect. These events can range from