The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the State Department continue to take concrete actions to crack down on third-party intermediaries used to evade both U.S. Russia-related sanctions and export controls. (See Lewis Brisbois’ alert from March 7, 2023.)

On March 24, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping tort reform bill, CS/CS/HB 837 (HB 837), into law. Among its numerous implications, HB 837 amends Florida Statute §624.155 (the Civil Remedy Statute), heightening the insured’s burden for recovery of extracontractual, i.e. “bad faith,” damages under Florida law.

On Monday, April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear appeals by several major energy companies that sought to remove lawsuits filed by state and local governments from state court into federal court. The Court’s certiorari denials reject companies’ appeals in five separate cases, which involved claims brought by municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. 

Lewis Brisbois has commented extensively on the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the insurance industry. Adding to its four-part series on the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the insurance industry – including (1): Coverage, Exposure, and Losses; (2) Availability of Insurance; (3) Aircraft Lessors Sue For Damages Related to Aircraft Stuck in Russia; and (4) A Look at the Reinsurance Market and its Impact on Ship Insurance – is a look into a giant, consolidated lawsuit set to be heard in London’s High Court beginning in October 2024. See AerCap Ireland Ltd. v. AIG Europe SA and another, case number CL-2022-000294, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. The case involves insurers of aircraft leasing companies. The insurers successfully merged several lawsuits filed by aircraft leasing companies arising from their claims for planes stranded in Russia as a result of the conflict and subsequent sanctions.

This week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that sets up a split in authority over whether freight broker tort claims are preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (FAAAA) (40 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(1), and whether those claims are excluded from preemption under the “safety exception” found in 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(2)(A). Essentially, the court held that the construction of the statute's exception used specific and intentional language and thus does not accommodate general state law negligence claims, regardless of whether they are safety concerns and within the state's safety regulatory authority.

On December 16, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Senate Bill 2-A (S.B. 2-A, or the Act). Widely touted as “groundbreaking,” S.B. 2-A reforms many aspects of the claims process, including the timing for paying and adjusting claims, eliminating one-way attorneys’ fee awards, and banning assignment-of-benefits agreements. This alert provides an overview of the key provisions of S.B. 2-A. Unless otherwise stated in each amended statute, December 16, 2022 appears to be the effective date of the Act.

California’s Air Resources Board is introducing the nation’s first zero-emission commercial truck standard, which will see the state mandating makers of medium and heavy-duty trucks, such as semi-trailers, big rigs, cement mixers, garbage trucks, delivery vans, and airport shuttles, to sell hybrid or electric heavy-duty trucks. The aim is to increase the supply of such trucks in California in the next two decades. However, this has caused concerns for the commercial trucking industry, including truck manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors, who have highlighted a number of compliance hurdles, such as the lack of charging infrastructure, ongoing supply chain shortages, and pending regulatory changes. 

For several years, Lewis Brisbois’ ADA Compliance & Defense attorneys have used consent decrees when settling New York federal court putative class action lawsuits in which the vision disabled plaintiffs allege that the defendants’ websites and mobile apps are not accessible in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and, in some cases, state and local laws.