The Travis County DA’s office has launched a criminal investigation of State Farm, the massive insurer, regarding its handling of thousands of insurance claims following Hurricane Ike. Now, Senator Rodney Ellis is demanding that the Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”) reopen its investigation of State Farm and its Texas subsidiary, State Farm Lloyds. “Given that…
Read More
Beef Products Inc. sued ABC News, Inc. for defamation over its coverage of a meat product that critics called “pink slime.” Beef Products is claiming the network damaged the company by misleading consumers into believing the meat product was unhealthy and unsafe. The meat processor is seeking $1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 “false…
Read More
The Associated Press is reporting on a case arising out of a June 2010 auto crash that killed Kaitlynn Fisher. Progressive Insurance Company is now dealing with wide-spread negative publicity for its efforts to avoid paying policy benefits to the family of its insured, Kaitlynn Fisher, who died in the auto collision. The case stems…
Read More
According to a recent article in the Austin American Statesman, the state advocacy group for insurance customers, Texas Watch, is claiming that the Texas Department of Insurance intentionally blocked nearly 900 emails which were being sent to the agency’s commissioner Eleanor Kitzman as part of a mass email campaign. Texas Watch had organized a mass…
Read More
The San Antonio-based businessman, Armando Montelongo Jr., who gained fame in 2006 as a star of the A&E show “Flip This House,” is suing his brother and co-star David Montelongo and David’s wife, Melina. One of Armando’s companies, Real Estate Training International LLC, accuses the brother and sister-in-law of trademark infringement, damage to business reputation,…
Read More
Last Friday, the Texas Supreme Court eliminated the rights of injured workers to sue workers’ compensation insurance carriers that act in bad faith. The 5-4 decision argued that such litigation interferes with the state’s workers’ compensation system. In this case, Texas Mutual Insurance Company of Austin had initially denied an injured worker’s claim on the basis that…
Read More
According to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI), Loya Insurance, Co. has been fined $300,000 for filing inaccurate information on the rates it charges customers and unfair and deceptive practices. TDI criticized the insurance company for running advertisements stating that coverage could be obtained with no fees or down payments. According to the consent order,…
Read More
Allen Stanford was sentenced to spend 110 years in prison by United States District Judge David Hittner in Houston, Texas. Stanford was the head of Stanford Financial Group. Through it and related companies, including Stanford International Bank, an offshore bank in Antigua, he lost or consumed billions of dollars of investors’ savings. Losses have been…
Read More