Identifying and Quantifying Government Contract Claims
Can’t We All Just Get Along? Effective Ways to Navigate the Tri-Partite Relationship Among Policyholders, Insurers, and Insurer Chosen Defense Counsel
Settling a Claim: Get Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
Reservation of Rights and the Insurer
With very limited exceptions, liability policies provide insureds with two primary benefits: a defense paid for by the insurance carrier and indemnity for covered claims. These benefits to the insured are purchased with...more
A California federal court has held that neither sending a reservation of rights letter nor the mere filing of a suit seeking recission or declaratory relief while an insurer defends the insured amounts to a breach of an...more
The United States District Court for the District of South Dakota, applying South Dakota law, has held that an insured healthcare system was barred from settling without its healthcare liability insurer’s consent where the...more
A recent federal appeals court case applying Utah law goes to the heart of the conflict that arises between a policyholder and insurer when an insurer defends a policyholder under a reservation of rights and receives a...more
In a 4-3 decision in Auto-Owners Insurance Co. v. Bolt Factory Loft Owners Association, Inc., the Colorado Supreme Court held that an insurer who is defending under a reservation of rights is not entitled to intervene where...more
The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, applying Texas law, has held that a legal malpractice insurer was not liable for a statutory bad faith claim by the insured law firm because the evidence...more
The California Court of Appeal recently disposed of a novel attack on bad faith law launched by Zurich American Insurance Company. In Miller Marital Deduction Trust, et al. v. Zurich American Insurance Company, 2019 DJDAR...more
Miller Marital Deduction Trust v. Zurich American Insurance Company, — P.3d –, 2019 WL 5304862; First Appellate District Court of Appeal, Division Three, Case No. A155398 (October 21, 2019). In Miller Marital Deduction...more
Florida House Bill 301—approved by the Florida Legislature in the 2019 Regular Session and signed by the Governor—addressed a number of different issues relating to insurance in Florida. This article discusses four of those...more
Progressive recently settled a bad faith lawsuit with the guardians of a child injured in a car accident driven by a Progressive policyholder, Earl Lloyd. Progressive faced liability for an underlying judgment in excess of...more
In part one of this blog I discussed intervention, one option insurers may have when coverage questions arise. As I noted in my prior blog, procedures for intervention vary by state, and some states simply do not allow an...more
The American Law Institute voted on May 22, 2018 to approve the final draft of its “Restatement of the Law of Liability Insurance.” This was the culmination of an eight-year project that evolved through 29 drafts resulting in...more
An Insurer’s Guide to Reserving Rights: Tips for Avoiding Waiver and Estoppel - Insurers know all too well that the penalties for an ineffective reservation of rights letter can be severe...more
This author suggested, in an earlier May 2016 Bad Faith blog article, that an insurer can measure on a “strength scale” its insurance coverage defenses while it defends its insured against underlying claims and lawsuits under...more
When discussing bad faith in the third party context, most of the discussion properly centers on the duty to settle a claim. However, other actions taken by a policyholder and carrier can have an impact. The recent case of...more
Unfair Trade Practices Exclusion Doesn't Cover Consumer Protection Suits - Why it matters: An unfair trade practices clause did not bar coverage for a policyholder's subsidiary, an Illinois federal court ruled, ordering...more
This summer, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania addressed an important question that has divided other courts: if an insurer defends a claim subject to a reservation of rights, may the insured settle the claim without the...more
Insured's Notice to Broker Satisfied Policy Requirements, Illinois Court Rules - Why it matters: An insured's notice to its broker satisfied the policy's notice requirements, an Illinois appellate panel recently...more
Insurance policies typically include a cooperation clause, which requires the insured to cooperate with the insurer in the defense of a covered claim. Insurers routinely use this clause as a sword against their insureds by...more
When presented with a lawsuit potentially seeking covered damages, a liability insurer owes a duty to defend and is faced with three options:1) tender the defense unconditionally and therefore control the defense, including...more
D&Os Entitled to Unfettered Access to Bankrupt Company’s Policy Proceeds to Fund Defense Costs: Why it matters - In an important victory for directors and officers of a bankrupt company, a New York court...more
Many insurers are in the habit of sending perfunctory “reservation of rights” letters to their insureds throughout the lifetime of a claim. The reason they do so is not a very well-guarded secret in the insurance industry. An...more
The court in Perma-Pipe, Inc. v. Liberty Surplus Insurance Corporation, Case No. 13 C 2989, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54867 (N.D. Ill. April 21, 2014), held that a CGL insurer breached its duty to defend by refusing to pay for...more