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Sterns & Weinroth's insurance regulatory practice encompasses legislative, regulatory, corporate and litigation issues in both the property/casualty and life and health insurance areas. The firm's attorneys have extensive knowledge of the various insurance reforms that have taken place both nationally and in New Jersey and have successfully guided the firm's clients through the often complex regulatory changes which have accompanied these reforms.

Some hallmarks of the firm's insurance regulatory practice include its familiarity with the courts and administrative agencies governing regulated insurance entities, as well as its sensitivity to the concerns of state regulators and the insurers doing business in this state. We have worked closely with the Department of Banking and Insurance, the Department of Health and the Small Employer Health Board, the Legislature, and the Office of the Governor, among others, in addressing clients' needs in this area.

Our attorneys are familiar with state filings and internal agency decisionmaking processes, and they work with company officers, directors and in-house counsel to establish appropriate objectives and strategies which will achieve the best possible results. The firm's insurance regulatory clients include national, regional and local stock, mutual and reciprocal insurers, including reinsurers and surplus lines insurers; insurer trade associations; life and health organizations; and insurance producers and agencies.

Our representative corporate, regulatory and counselling work in this area includes:

  • assisting in the formation, organization and licensing of insurance companies;
  • drafting and amending certificates of incorporation and certificates of authority;
  • assisting in obtaining admissions of foreign and alien property/casualty and life and health insurers;
  • compliance counselling, including market conduct issues, and representation before the Department on compliance related issues and asserted violations;
  • filing rates, manual rules, rating plans, policy forms and endorsements and changes thereto;
  • handling contested rate filings, including private passenger automobile, medical malpractice and Medicare supplement insurance rate hearings;
  • managing insurance holding company system acquisition filings and conducting hearings on such filings;
  • reviewing agency contract issues and litigating contested cases;
  • handling producer license revocation hearings;
  • counseling and advising clients on cancellation and nonrenewal requirements;
  • counseling and advising clients on insurance fraud issues;
  • counseling and advising clients on residual market mechanisms;
  • counseling and advising clients on insurance guaranty funds;
  • handling insurance company liquidations and rehabilitations, including the representation of creditors in insurance insolvencies; and
  • drafting withdrawal applications and counselling insurers on the withdrawal process.

Our attorneys practicing in this area have represented a broad range of insurance clients in numerous precedent setting cases and have acted as lead counsel or amicus curiae counsel to assist the courts in various insurance-related matters. They also have published and lectured on insurance regulatory matters, and include a former Deputy Attorney General in the Insurance Section of the Attorney General's Office, and a member of the Federation of Regulatory Counsel, a nationwide association of attorneys specialized in insurance regulatory law.


The attorneys practicing in this area in our Insurance Regulatory Law group include: Bernadette Fallows Davidson,  Doreen J. Piligian,  Richard J. Van Wagner  and Richard K. Weinroth.

The firm's representative cases in this area include:

Davidson v, Slater, 189 N.J. 166 (2007), Franklin Mut. Ins. Co. v. Jersey Central Power & Light, 188 N.J. 43 (2006), DiProspero v. Penn, 183 N.J. 477 (2005), Caviglia v. Royal Tours of America, 178 N.J. 460 (2004); Vassiliu v. Daimler Chrysler Corp., 178 N.J. 286 (2004); Gaydos v. National Consumer Ins. Co., 168 N.J. 255 (2001); In re Markel Ins. Co., 319 N.J. Super. 23 (App. Div. 1999); Smith v. Schmidt, 155 N.J. 44 (1998); Carter-Wallace, Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co., 154 N.J. 312 (1998); In the Matter of the 1997 Assessments, 311 N.J. Super. 600 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 156 N.J. 407 (1998); Matter of Commissioner of Ins., 132 N.J. 209 (1993); Matter of Producer Assignment Program, 261 N.J. Super. 292 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 133 N.J. 438 (1993); Matter of Farmers' Mut. Fire Assur., 256 N.J. Super. 607 (App. Div. 1993); Matter of Com'r of Ins., 256 N.J. Super. 158 (App. Div. 1992), aff'd, 132 N.J. 209 (1993); Matter of Private Pass. Auto Rate Rev., 256 N.J. Super. 46 (App. Div. 1992); Matter of American Reliance Ins., 251 N.J. Super. 541 (App. Div. 1991), certif. denied, 127 N.J. 556 (1992); Matter of Aetna Cas. and Sur. Co., 248 N.J. Super. 367 (App. Div.), certif. denied, 126 N.J. 385 (1991), cert. denied, 112 S.Ct. 1244 (1992); Allstate Ins. Co. v. Fortunato, 248 N.J. Super. 153 (App. Div. 1991); Matter of Terminated Aetna Agents, 248 N.J. Super. 255 (App. Div. 1990), certif. denied, 126 N.J. 319 (1991); Bd. of Chosen Freeholders v. Szaferman, 117 N.J. 94 (1989).