Hinshaw Releases Second Edition of Duty to Defend: A Fifty-State Survey
Loading and Unloading Under GL and Auto Policies: 2022
Prior & Pending Litigation
What is a Damron Agreement?
In Home Depot Inc. v. Steadfast Insurance Co., Home Depot learned the hard way a rule every DIY enthusiast knows: measure twice, cut once. It appears Home Depot’s measurements were off when it sized up its insurance needs,...more
The 2014 Home Depot data breach was one of the more notorious cyberattacks. A decade later, litigation over that incident continues. The Sixth Circuit recently decided whether an electronic data exclusion cleared insurers...more
As 2024 rapidly approaches, we look back at some of the key decisions, trends, and developments impacting the U.S. insurance industry in 2023 and look ahead at some trends and cases to watch in 2024. Insurers continue to...more
When a cybersecurity-related incident occurs, an insured should not automatically assume a standard commercial general liability (CGL) policy issued by an insurer will cover their losses, as CGL policies generally afford...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, applying Texas law, held that an insurer owed a duty to defend its insured in an underlying litigation stemming from a payment card breach because it found that the...more
Amid high-profile cybersecurity breaches that have spurred regulatory action and encouraged compliance revamps, the Fifth Circuit recently ruled that the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania (“ICSOP”) has a duty to...more
In our March Insurance Update, we discuss four state supreme court cases and four cybercrime cases. The state high courts address: •From whose perspective should a consent-to-settle provision be judged? •What standard...more
In this month's edition of our Privacy & Cybersecurity Update, we examine the European Data Protection Board's published opinions on data protection impact assessments, an Ohio court's ruling that bitcoin is covered insured...more
A federal court in Florida recently adopted the now well-developed consensus that data breach losses are not covered under standard Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies....more
As cyber hacking and phishing schemes become more common, one issue that is often raised is whether, and to what extent, damages resulting from these incidents fall within the coverage afforded under a standard commercial...more
On November 17, 2017, a U.S. district court in Florida narrowly construed personal and advertising injury coverage for data-breach claims under a commercial general liability policy. In Innovak International, Inc., v. The...more
In a recent, unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit held that an insurer had a duty to defend its insured under a CGL policy for a cyber incident. A class action complaint was filed against Portal Healthcare Solutions...more
In Travelers Indem. Co. of Am. v. Portal Healthcare Solutions, L.L.C., 2016 U.S. App. Lexis 6554, decided on April 11, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that a commercial general liability...more
In April 2013, Glens Falls Hospital admitted that the medical records for more than 2,300 of its patients were stored for several months on an unprotected computer server. The hospital’s outside records contractor, Portal...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (“Fourth Circuit”) recently concluded that an insurer had a duty to defend a health care company that was sued by individuals whose personal health information was...more
In Travelers Indemnity Co. of America v. Portal Healthcare Solutions, LLC, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reverses the recent trend of insurance companies avoiding any liability for data breaches under commercial general...more
Earlier this month in an unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Travelers Indemnity Company of America (“Travelers”) had a duty to defend its insured against a data breach suit under the terms of...more
In a clear rejection of insurers’ attempts to artificially narrow the broad coverage provided by commercial general liability (“CGL”) policies, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently held that an...more
On April 11, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a ruling by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that Travelers Indemnity Company of America...more
On April 11, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rendered one of the first appellate-level decisions dealing with insurance coverage for a cyber event. The Fourth Circuit confirmed that a commercial...more
With today’s increased focus on data breaches and related cyber liability exposure, the insurance market continues to develop policies tailored to this unique risk. Insurers are also excluding cyber risks in many traditional...more
This week, a Fourth Circuit panel in an unpublished decision validated arguments long made by policyholders: that commercial general liability policies may provide coverage for certain data breach liabilities. In this case,...more
This week, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the lower court’s ruling of summary judgment in favor of the policyholder Portal Healthcare, finding that Travelers has a duty to defend it under a General Liability policy for a...more
Commercial General Liability policies have, for several decades, included advertising and personal injury coverage. Such coverage is afforded for injury caused by various enumerated offenses, including breach of privacy....more
For policyholders and attorneys that have feared the lack of coverage for data breaches under traditional policies (CGL, property), a recent ruling suggest that it is not time to write off those policies as a potential source...more