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Information
We Call it Cannabis Now
Length: 2 Hours
This class is designed to be an introduction to the insurance issues related to national changes in marijuana possession and use laws. The course has a particular emphasis on examining the commercial risks, but also addresses the personal lines or / homeowner’s insurance issues. Also, while the first part of the course is an examination of the ways in which law and risks are changing, part of the second portion of the course is an interactive, case-study examination of the coverage issues that already exist and have been decided in other states.
The chief objective of the course is to have students gain a wide-ranging sensitivity for the issues they might encounter if asked to insure a dispensary (or a home-grower, too). A secondary objective is to bring people up-to-date on state and federal treatment of marijuana and allied products. Another secondary objective is to have insurance personnel become sensitive to the coverage issues which may arise connected to marijuana, especially in the situations in which the risk has not been thoroughly previewed and underwritten before the loss.
Basic Course Information
Learning Objectives- A few words about the present cannabis market
- Historical Development
- Federal law: the Cole memos and withdrawal
- States begin legalization
- State regulatory systems
- The present state of the law and the impact on insurance and banking
- The Commercial Property and General Liability forms and their coverage for retail operations
- Case Study: Green Earth v. Atain Specialty (D.Col. 2015)
- Underwriting worker’s compensation for workers within the industry
- The impact of marijuana on coverage for workers in general – is it a disqualifying event?
- Is usage protected under federal or state law (if at all)?
- Drug testing in general
- The EPLI marketplace response
Major Subjects
- Section One – What is the Legal and Regulatory Environment?
- Section Two – Commercial Property and Liability Considerations
- Section Three – Worker’s Compensation and Cannabis
- Section Four – Employment Practices Considerations Generally
- Section Five – Products Recall / Health Issues and Vaping
- Section Six – The Homeowner’s Policy and the Industry’s treatment
Richard Pitts, Vice President and General Counsel, Arlington Roe
Richard S. Pitts is a private practice attorney in the insurance industry. Rick serves as Vice-President and General Counsel to Arlington/Roe & Co., Inc., an insurance brokerage and managing general agent headquartered in Indianapolis. Rick also serves as general counsel to the Independent Insurance Agents of Indiana, Inc., as well as its sister organization in Kentucky. Rick speaks annually at the “Roadshows” in Kentucky and Indiana’s Agency Compliance Seminars and presents various seminars on insurance and employment related matters. Pitts has also presented continuing education seminars to insurance professionals nationally through industry groups including the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.
Rick is a 1983 graduate of Wabash College and a 1986 graduate of Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. Pitts clerked for the Honorable Patrick D. Sullivan, a judge of the Indiana Court of Appeals in 1986-87. Rick is admitted to practice before Indiana state and federal courts, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and is a member of local, state and national bar associations. Pitts has tried multiple cases and participated in over seventy appeals.
Pitts is the recipient of the “Excellence in Continuing Legal Education Award” from the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum (ICLEF), having served as a panelist and lecturer on a variety of continuing education subjects. Pitts has co-authored two articles appearing in the Indiana Law Review.
