The DARB Insurance Services Blog

January 17, 2009

Workers Compensation in General

Filed under: Workers Comp — Administrator @ 12:04 am

Basic Overview
Workers Compensation Insurance is basically a form of no-fault insurance. It
gives employees the right to collect from their employers for injury, disability,
or death when the incident occurs within the course of employment. Workers
Compensation laws are designed around the idea that employers should be
charged with the cost of most work-related injury or occupational disease
regardless of who is at fault. Therefore, there is no assumption of risk or
contributory negligence. In return, these benefits are the exclusive remedy
available to employees against employers for injuries covered by WC laws. In
other words, employees cannot sue employers in court to obtain additional
compensation.

Benefits Provided
Workers Compensation laws vary from state to state, but in general, the
benefits fall under one of four categories:
Disability/Loss of Income: This benefit basically compensates employees
who are unable to work as the result of a work-related injury. It replaces a
portion of the lost income, not all.
Medical: This benefit pays for the costs of various medical services required
because of an employment related injury. There is no upper limit or time
period limit for which these expenses will be paid.
Survivor/Death: This benefit pays the surviving spouse, children, or other
relatives of an employee when the employee’s death is the result of a
work-related injury. In general, this compensation includes a weekly stipend
and a stipulated sum for funeral expenses.
Rehabilitation: This benefit basically compensates employees for the cost of
medical rehabilitation, such as physical therapy, due to a work-related injury.
It can additionally provide for vocational rehabilitation, such as retraining for
a different/new occupation. The expenses mest be reasonably justifiable.

Compensible Injuries
Work-related injuries, in regards to workers compensation laws, must arise
out of employment and arise in the course of employment. Three factors are
used to determine if the injury arose in the course of employment- time,
place, and circumstances. As such, the injury must occur during working
hours (during the time that work is actually being performed for the purposes
of employment), and occur at the place of employment or where employment
duties are actually being performed.

December 12, 2008

A Message From Lloyd Kaufman, IFTA Board President and Indie Producer

Filed under: News, Production and Entertainment — Administrator @ 12:05 am


Lloyd Kaufman, Chairman of the IFTA Board and founder of Troma, addresses the IFTA
members on Media Consolidation and how it affects independent producers and distributors. Not only is Chairman Kaufman’s message dead on- its very entertaining!

December 10, 2008

Cast Insurance

Filed under: Production and Entertainment — Administrator @ 10:30 pm

Cast Insurance provides coverage for the disbursement of expenses related to the completion of principal photography in the event that an insured actress, actor, animal or any other declared person cannot begin, continue or complete their duties in relationship to the production, as a result of death, injury or sickness. Insured persons are initially covered for accident only, until such time as they are medically examined and complete a medical questionnaire. The insurance company may provide coverage for illness, if the person qualifies based upon the medical examination and/or questionnaire. Coverage can also be extended to include the kidnapping/ransom of any insured artist or director.

Cast insurance coverage should ideally begin around four weeks prior to the first day of photography. This will ensure that there is enough time for the insured cast members to have their necessary physical exams and to complete all other necessary paperwork

December 9, 2008

Additional Insured Endorsements and Certificates of Insurance- What’s the Difference?

Filed under: General Liability, Production and Entertainment — Administrator @ 11:39 pm

We recently had a client that was confused by these two documents, and wanted to know what their differences were. He was filming in the city of Los Angeles and wanted to know why the City of Los Angeles was asking him for both documents when everyone else was only asking for a Certificate of Insurance naming them as an additional insured.

Generally, ISO endorsements (the industry standard)furnish coverage to the additional insured for liability “arising out of” the named insured’s work, operations, or premises (or some variation on that theme). For example, the March 1997 version (the version currently in use) of the ISO CG 20 10 AI endorsement provides as follows:

“Who Is An Insured (Section II) is amended to include as an insured the person or organization shown in the Schedule, but only with respect to liability arising out of your ongoing operations performed for that insured.”

In January 1999, the California Court of Appeal, in Acceptance Ins. Co. v Syufy Enterprises, 81 Cal Rptr 2d 557 (Cal App 1999), further defined “arising out of” as follows:

“…the ordinary broad meaning of “arising out of,” which as noted above has been regularly applied by California courts in insurance cases. This inconsistency leads to tortured results. In Granite Construction, the negligent loading of the named insured’s truck caused no injury (and no liability) until the named insured’s employee began hauling the load, in the course of which the truck overturned. It is difficult to understand how the driver’s claim did not arise out of the hauling operation in the most direct way, unless one assumes that fault is a predicate for coverage. We do not believe such an assumption is justified by the policy term “liability arising out of operations.” [81 Cal Rptr 2d at 562]”

The Certificate of Insurance, on the other hand, is a document that merely gives evidence of the underlying insurance. It does not in any way alter the policy.

November 26, 2008

Property and Casualty Insurers are Kept Safe by Conservative Investment

Filed under: News — Administrator @ 12:54 am

State insurance regulators place restrictive guidelines on property and casualty insurers. These restrictions, in turn, help to keep them financially sound. For example, at year end 2007, 65.2% of the industry’s total invested assets of approximately 1.3 trillion USD was invested in long term bonds (A.M. Best), and 7.5% was in cash and short-term investments. Conversly, only 14.5% was held in common and preferred stock.
In today’s volatile environment, it is also important to be aware of the fact that these insurers do not have any exposure to mortgage-linked securities in their portfolios.
The top companies by asset distribution are Berkshire Hathaway, State Farm, and Travelers Group. The entire United States Property and Casualty industry had 1.55 trillion USD in admitted assets at the end of the 2007 calendar year.

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