We’re a rebellious lot in Leeds – well, at least when it comes to challenging our parking tickets. With a 32 per cent appeal rate of all tickets issued by Leeds City Council in 2011, it seems that compared with the rest of the UK (which holds an average appeal rate of 20 per cent) we simply don’t take our parking tickets lying down.

New figures suggest our defiant attitude to parking tickets may even have spurred the council to reduce the number of tickets issued. The total number of penalty charge notices issued by Leeds City Council in 2011 dropped by eight per cent on the previous year – that’s 9,433 fewer parking tickets for motorists across the city than in 2010.

Full post…

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, after three days of arguments on President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, appeared ready to strike down not just the requirement that individuals have insurance, but the entire law, invalidating a major piece of domestic legislation for the first time since the Depression.

That prospect, unthinkable to many experts as recently as last week, will not be certain until the justices rule on the case, probably in June.

But the electric set of arguments that ended Wednesday revealed profound skepticism about the law by the court’s five-member conservative majority, which appeared openly hostile to its scheme for mobilizing the federal government to achieve universal healthcare.

In question after question the nine justices revealed themselves as sharply divided as Congress and the American public over the virtues of Obama’s law.

But unlike Congress — whose slim Democratic majority allowed passage of the law in 2010 — the court has a narrow majority of Republican appointees. If un Full post…

Last week our theme was road tripping which was great, so great that it inspired us to put a World First Travel Insurance team together for next year’s Mongol Rally. You heard it here first! Unfortunately, my team name suggestion of Nuns On The Run has been thwarted in favour of something more sensible (probably involving the words World, “First, Travel and maybe Insurance).

So to get us even more inspired and also help me persuade some of my friends to leave their loved ones for quite some time, this week we are off to Mongolia. So start your engines and fasten your seatbelts, this may be a bumpy ride.

Let’s begin at the end with The Start of Something Good with . Any j

Full post…

NEW YORK  A cadre of corrupt doctors and scam artists sought to cheat auto insurance companies out of 279 million in bogus medical claims  the largest-ever fraud involving New York’s no-fault law, authorities said Wednesday.

The investigation resulted in federal racketeering, health care fraud, mail fraud and money laundering charges against 36 people, mainly of Russian descent. They include 10 physicians and three lawyers. One had the nickname “KGB.”

At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said while the false claims totaled 279 million, the actual loss to private insurers was 113 million. S Full post…

Today is Valentine’s Day: a whole day devoted to the celebration of love and romance. But when the pressure to impress is on, sometimes a little inspiration can go a long way. Step forward, Cupid! This winged legend of love has been filling hearts with desire since the days of Greek mythology.

As travel insurers, we’re fully aware that people’s jobs can take them all over the world. But don’t think you’ll catch Cupid at an airport. He can fly! Just as w

Full post…

Chief executives from some of the UK’s biggest insurers will meet the prime minister on Tuesday to debate what needs to be done to tackle the “whiplash epidemic” pushing up the cost of motor insurance.

The Association of British Insurance’s director general, Otto Thoresen, will be joined at the summit with David Cameron by the bosses of Admiral, AXA, Aviva, Co-operative Financial Services, RBS Insurance and Zurich. Whiplash claims are costing insurers £2bn a year and adds an extra £90 to the average motor insurance premium, the ABI says. O

Full post…