Today, hosts Lynda A. Bennett and Eric Jesse discuss a recent decision that addresses broker malpractice – a common claim for policyholders to pursue after learning insurance protection is unavailable or insufficient to cover...more
In Advance Trust & Life Escrow Services, LTA v. Protective Life Insurance Co. (Mar. 2, 2024), the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court’s dismissal of breach of contract...more
A plethora of litigation exists in Florida’s state and federal courts regarding the amounts an insurance carrier must reimburse a medical provider for personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. Such challenges carry a heavy...more
In In re Illinois National Insurance Co., the Texas Supreme Court held that disclaiming insurers were not bound by any underlying settlement agreement, entered into without the insurers’ consent, where the claimants promised...more
An insurer generally acquires its insured’s rights against tortfeasors through subrogation. But what happens if the insured enters into a settlement and releases the responsible third party? Does the release extinguish the...more
Automobile negligence carries significant consequences for many of its victims and their families. The California Office of Traffic Safety reported nearly 4,300 people died in 2021 in auto accidents. According to the U.S....more
In Loblaw Companies Limited v. Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, 2024 ONCA 145, the Ontario Court of Appeal, among other things, overturned the lower court’s finding that insureds were entitled to seek 100% of...more
Several years ago, I published a blog regarding the number of occurrences triggered under a liability policy for a motor vehicle accident in Florida. Other states also addressed this issue. Recently, the Federal District...more
When an insurer pays the full amount of an appraisal award plus statutory interest, the insured is precluded from recovering attorney’s fees under Chapter 542A of the Texas Insurance Code, according to a recent decision from...more
The past year once again saw a breadth of court decisions addressing a wide variety of directors and officers and professional liability insurance coverage issues. At various levels, state and federal courts across the...more
So many things in life can be randomly assembled and made to function seamlessly: puzzle pieces for your five-year-old, online gaming teammates, and music mixed by a deejay, to name a few....more
On February 14, 2024, Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal, in Fernando Cantens and Ana Marie Cantens v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s London, No. 3D22-0917 (Fla. 3d DCA Feb. 13, 2024), joined Florida’s Fourth District...more
5 Walworth clarifies an issue that had become muddled since the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s 2016 decision in Wisconsin Pharmacal Co. v. Nebraska Cultures of California. Namely, 5 Walworth overturns Pharmacal’s introduction of...more
As a dispute-resolution mechanism, appraisal can be an effective means of resolving a valuation dispute between an insurer and its policyholder. Appraisal provisions may include language that allows an insurer to deny a claim...more
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
In a cautionary tale for insurers everywhere, a California court recently ordered two excess carriers to pay their policy limits twice for a single policy term. Why? Because in the policies at issue, the policy limits paid...more
In Southern-Owners Insurance Co. v. Midnight Tires Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted an insurer’s motion for summary judgment after considering extrinsic evidence on the issue of the...more
The duties to defend and indemnify arise out of an insurer’s contract with its insured. It is a commonly accepted principle under Alabama law that an insurer’s duties to defend and indemnify are separate and distinct. Indeed,...more
Regulators Hit Jackpot: Off-Channel Communications - Several years before announcing the first “off-channel” communications enforcement action, the SEC and FINRA cautioned broker-dealers and investment advisers about...more
A federal court recently agreed with Munich Re that it was not obligated to reimburse an insurer for losses and fees the insurer incurred in litigation with its professional liability carrier regarding a bad faith claim...more
In Gates v. Homesite Insurance Co., the Washington Court of Appeals held that the plaintiff-insureds’ failure to provide 20 days’ notice of intent to sue its insurer, though required by statute, was a mere “procedural...more
The Texas Supreme Court reinforced common law precedent that insurers cannot avoid liability under an insurance policy based on a misrepresentation in an insurance application unless the insurer can establish that the insured...more
This is the final in a series of four articles analyzing recent changes to Florida law governing bad-faith claims in insurance coverage litigation made in Senate Bill 2A and House Bill 837, which became law in December 2022...more
Tendering policy limits to an insured in response to a Notice of Intent to Litigate, under section 627.70152, Florida Statutes (2021), precludes insureds from recovering pre-suit attorney’s fees from their property insurers...more
In Scaglione v. Acceptance Indemnity Insurance Co., the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court order holding that an assault and battery exclusion in a commercial general liability policy barred coverage...more