At Callahan & Blaine, based in Irvine, California, practices vary from catastrophic personal injury to complex business litigation and much more. However, for Senior Trial Attorney Rich Collins, his expertise in insurance recovery, coverage and bad faith, health care law, has found him helping clients who have been wrongfully denied critical and in some instances,…
Ady Barkan is willing to give his last breath to bring about change in our managed health care system. With a ruling today by United States District Court Judge Michael Fitzgerald, denying Health Net’s motion to compel arbitration of Mr. Barkan’s class action lawsuit, the change sought by Mr. Barkan will be litigated in federal…
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that vaccine manufacturers are shielded against certain types of personal injury lawsuits due to a 1986 law that established a no-fault compensation system for injuries linked to childhood vaccines. The case of Brueswitz v. Wyeth LLC involved a Pennsylvania family that sued drug manufacturer Wyeth, alleging that their daughter…
Despite an appeal by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has once again denied federal disaster aid to the victims of the San Bruno, California gas line explosion. Thirty-five homes were destroyed and eight people killed when the PG&E gas line exploded in September of this year. FEMA maintains that local resources…
A recently released report from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by California Representative Henry Waxman, found that denial of individual health insurance policies increased almost 50% between 2007 and 2009, and that companies are denying more claims based on pre-existing conditions. Four of the largest insurance companies, WellPoint Inc., Aetna Inc., Humana Inc.,…
Callahan & Blain’s client, Sentex Systems, Inc. designs and manufactures access control systems for commercial and residential buildings and gated complexes. When Electronic Security Services sued Sentex, alleging that a former sales manager from their company had joined Sentex and used confidential, trade secret information to recruit its customers, Sentex turned to its insurance company.…
As most Orange County, California homeowners already know, California earthquake insurance is sold separately from regular homeowners’ or renters’ insurance policies. That’s because, in California, earthquake insurance is overseen by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA) – a privately funded government agency that is actually the largest provider of earthquake insurance in the world. The California…
California homeowners are no strangers to the damage that can be done to a home by fire. But many wonder what their insurance policy will cover if their home suffers fire damage. The typical homeowner’s insurance policy will cover most losses from fire damage, unless the fire was intentionally set by the homeowners. That is…
When it comes to shelling out for earthquake insurance, many Orange County, California residents are on the fence. For most, if they buy it or if they don’t buy it, they are still left wondering if they made the right choice. Prior to the Northridge earthquakes of 1994, earthquake insurance was relatively inexpensive and for…
Orange County, California residents are no strangers to insurance claims arising from natural disasters. Landslides, wild fires and earthquakes all too frequently wreak havoc on people’s lives – and their property. And while insurance companies don’t require home and business owners to file claims immediately after a disaster strikes, it’s not a good idea to…