General Liability
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February 05, 2025
Calif. Panel Revives Malpractice Suit Against Insurer Attys
A California state appeals court revived an Allstate policyholder's legal malpractice suit against his insurer-appointed attorney, saying the policyholder sufficiently alleged the attorney's drafting of an underlying settlement in a wrongful death suit caused him damages.
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February 04, 2025
Meta Attacks Insurers' Bid To Remand Social Media MDL Row
Meta asked a Delaware federal court to postpone ruling on its insurers' request to remand a dispute over coverage for thousands of suits alleging harm from the company's social media platforms, saying the action will likely soon be transferred to multidistrict litigation in California alongside the underlying claims.
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February 03, 2025
Climate Group Says Insurance Hikes Threaten Housing Market
The U.S. housing market could sustain a $1.4 trillion loss in value over the next 30 years as insurance costs surge and consumer demand shifts due to climate change, according to a report Monday from climate analytics company First Street.
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February 03, 2025
NC Justices Urged To Reject Appeal Over Rate Hike Approvals
North Carolina's insurance commissioner urged the state's highest court to reject a policyholder's appeal challenging a series of insurer rate hike approvals in court, saying an appeals panel correctly found that the policyholder failed to support his claims that intervening in the preceding approval process was impossible.
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January 31, 2025
Insurer Says $30M Suit Over Child's Murder Not Covered
An insurer told a Tennessee federal court Friday that due to an assault and battery exclusion, a property management company had no coverage for an underlying $30 million wrongful death suit brought after a boy was fatally shot at one of the company's facilities.
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January 31, 2025
Supreme Court Eyes Its 'Next Frontier' In FCC Delegation Case
A case about broadband subsidies will give the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to revive a long-dormant separation of powers principle that attorneys say could upend regulations in numerous industries and trigger a power shift that would make last term's shake-up of federal agency authority pale in comparison. And a majority of the court already appears to support its resurrection.
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February 14, 2025
Law360 Seeks Members For Its 2025 Editorial Boards
Law360 is looking for avid readers of our publications to serve as members of our 2025 editorial advisory boards.
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January 30, 2025
Insurer Says It Owes No Coverage For Boys Home Abuse
An insurer told a Washington federal judge Thursday that it should be off the hook for coverage in an underlying case involving sexual abuse claims at home for boys because the alleged harm occurred years before the first policy was issued to the group home operator.
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January 30, 2025
LA Fires Raise Flood And Mud Risk, But Coverage Possible
Los Angeles' first significant post-fire rainfall last weekend heightened the prospect that the city could suffer more damage from flooding and mudslides in burn areas, but policyholder attorneys say coverage for those normally excluded perils is possible.
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January 30, 2025
Meta Broadens Bid To Halt Social Media MDL Coverage Fight
Meta is turning to federal courts in its battle against its insurers' bid to avoid covering thousands of pending claims that accuse the company of crafting its social media platforms to be addictive to adolescents, expanding the front lines in what may be a landmark coverage fight. Here, Law360 summarizes the underlying litigation, the fight to pause the coverage dispute and the next steps in the coverage case.
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January 30, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
An environmental remediation company must cover Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in a decade-old kickback suit, a Zurich insurer owes $12.2 million to a solar energy company for rain damage and the Baylor College of Medicine can't recover a $12 million award for its pandemic-related losses. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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January 29, 2025
Senate Banking Committee Forms NFIP Working Group
With the National Flood Insurance Program's authorization set to expire in March, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking has formed a working group to reform the program and work toward long-term reauthorization, a press release from committee chairman and South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott said.
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January 29, 2025
Lloyd's Can't Yet Arbitrate $5M Settlement Coverage Dispute
A New Jersey federal court rejected a bid Wednesday from certain Lloyd's of London underwriters to arbitrate a man's demand that they cover a $5 million settlement he won against a police department they insured, though it stopped short of saying whether the parties must actually go to arbitration.
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January 29, 2025
NY Archdiocese Wants Abuse Coverage Row Segmented
The Archdiocese of New York urged a New York state court to analyze coverage in phases for over 1,300 sex abuse lawsuits it and its affiliated entities face, arguing that because the "vast majority" of the underlying lawsuits are still being litigated, assessing coverage prematurely could be "highly prejudicial."
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January 28, 2025
Insurer Says Mich. Sports Complex Not Covered In Injury Suit
A Berkley unit said it has no duty to defend or indemnify a Michigan sports complex in an underlying suit over a girl's injury during varsity soccer tryouts, telling a federal court Tuesday that a "participants" exclusion in its commercial general liability policy bars coverage.
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January 27, 2025
No Coverage For Worker 'Crushed' In Hole, Insurer Says
A construction contractor's commercial general liability insurer told a Louisiana federal court it owes no coverage for a wrongful death lawsuit that, according to the insurer, alleges a worker was "crushed in a hole."
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January 27, 2025
AIG Unit Says No Coverage For McKinsey Opioid Suits, Deals
Management consulting giant McKinsey & Co. shouldn't have any coverage for more than 250 opioid lawsuits and roughly $1.3 billion it's paid in corresponding settlement payments to date, an AIG unit told a Delaware state court, arguing the underlying claimants have accused McKinsey of uninsurable "deliberate misconduct and greed."
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January 24, 2025
Fla. Judge Splits Trial In Case Over DJ's Elevator Injuries
A Florida federal judge Friday bifurcated a trial between two insurance carriers and an elevator company that settled a Miami D.J.'s $5.5 million injury lawsuit, ruling that excess coverage claims will be tried first, with bad faith claims being tried after.
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January 24, 2025
FDIC Wins Discovery Bid In SVB Fraud Coverage Row
A Chubb unit must give certain documents to Silicon Valley Bank's former parent SVB Financial Group regarding coverage for a fraud that SVB Financial said caused $73 million in losses, a North Carolina federal court ruled Friday, though relieving an excess insurer of doing the same.
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January 24, 2025
Chemical Co. Says Insurer Owed Defense For Birth Defect Suit
A chemical supplier said a Liberty Mutual unit unreasonably denied coverage for an underlying suit brought by workers at a Seattle-area Boeing facility who blame their son's birth defects on chemicals they were exposed to on the job, according to a suit removed to Washington federal court.
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January 23, 2025
Fed. Climate Insurance Report Confirms Crises, Need For Info
A new U.S. Treasury report analyzing climate risks and rising insurance costs is one of the most comprehensive studies of the U.S. homeowners market to date, but leaves out key data that could help inform a fuller understanding of the forces shaping the market.
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January 23, 2025
McKinsey Not Covered For Over 260 Opioid Suits, Chubb Says
A group of Chubb insurers said they have no duty to defend or indemnify McKinsey & Co. in more than 260 suits accusing the management consulting firm of contributing to the opioid epidemic, telling a Delaware state court that the underlying suits do not seek damage "because of" bodily injury.
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January 23, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
Arbitrations for domestic insurers are out in Louisiana, Freddie Mac ended its $32 million coverage dispute, a California woman wants the U.S. Supreme Court to consider her coverage case and the 10th Circuit seemed skeptical that an insurer's reliance on an expert could set any precedent.
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January 23, 2025
Anderson Kill Atty Gives Tips To Policyholders After LA Fires
The recent wildfires in California have underscored the importance of policyholders knowing the extent of coverage they purchased and their rights if they must ultimately take their insurer to court. Here, Law360 talks with Anderson Kill's Diana Shafter Gliedman about what policyholders should keep in mind when purchasing insurance coverage.
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January 22, 2025
Toy Co. Not Covered In Unpaid Judgment Suit, Judge Says
A Berkshire Hathaway insurer has no duty to defend a toy company accused of using legal proceedings to evade payment of an $8.5 million default judgment for false advertising, a Minnesota federal court ruled, finding that abuse of process claims are not covered under the policy.
Expert Analysis
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Nevada Justices Could Expand Scope Of Subrogation Claims
The Nevada Supreme Court's recent decision to hear North River Insurance v. James River Insurance could expand the scope of equitable subrogation claims in the state by aligning with the California standard, which doesn't require excess insurers to demonstrate damages, says Daniel Heidtke at Duane Morris.
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8 Tech Tips For Stress-Free Remote Depositions
Court reporter Kelly D’Amico shares practical strategies for attorneys to conduct remote depositions with ease and troubleshoot any issues that arise, as it seems deposition-by-Zoom is here to stay after the pandemic.
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4 Ways Attorneys Can Emotionally Prepare For Trial
In the course of litigation, trial lawyers face a number of scenarios that can incite an emotional response, but formulating a mental game plan in advance of trial can help attorneys stay cool, calm and collected in the moment, says Rachel Lary at Lightfoot Franklin.
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Presidential Campaign Errors Provide Lessons For Trial Attys
Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign employed numerous strategies that evidently didn’t land, and trial attorneys should take note, because voters and jurors are both decision-makers who are listening for how one’s case presentation would affect them personally, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.
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3 Policyholder Lessons From NY Bad Faith Ruling
A New York appellate court's recent decision finding that Rockefeller University alleged viable bad faith claims against its insurers reinforces the principle that insurers may not elevate their own economic interests over those of their insureds, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Notable Q3 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Total loss valuation cases and labor depreciation cases dominated the past quarter of insurance class actions, with courts continuing to reject challenges to condition adjustments in the former, and a pro-insured trend persisting in the latter, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.
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Consider The Impact Of Election Stress On Potential Jurors
For at least the next few months, potential jurors may be working through anger and distrust stemming from the presidential election, and trial attorneys will need to assess whether those jurors are able to leave their political concerns at the door, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.
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NC Ruling Takes Practical Approach To Duty-To-Defend Costs
In Murphy-Brown v. Ace American Insurance, a case of first impression, the North Carolina Business Court adopted the commonsense rationale of many state courts in holding that policyholders' defense costs should be deemed presumtively reasonable when a insurer breaches its duty to defend, say attorneys at McGuireWoods.
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What Hawaii High Court Got Right And Wrong In AIG Ruling
Though the Hawaii Supreme Court in its recent Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance decision correctly adopted the majority rule that recklessly caused harm is an accident for coverage purposes, it erred in its interpretation of the pollution exclusion by characterizing climate change as "traditional environmental pollution," say attorneys at Haynes Boone.
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7 Tips To Help Your Witness Be A Cross-Exam Heavyweight
Because jurors tend to pay a little more attention to cross-examination, attorneys should train their witnesses to strike a balance — making it tough for opposing counsel to make their side’s case, without coming across as difficult to the jury, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.
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Key Insurance Implications Of Hawaii's Historic GHG Ruling
In Aloha Petroleum v. National Union Fire Insurance, the Hawaii Supreme Court became the first state court to classify greenhouse gasses as pollutants barred from insurance coverage, a ruling likely to be afforded great weight by courts across the country, say Scott Seaman and Gar Lauerman at Hinshaw & Culbertson.
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Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys
Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.
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Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code
As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.