In the 2008 film Wall-E, Earth is a post-apocalyptic wasteland with nothing on it but the abandoned remnants of human society, and a forlorn, trash-compacting robot. The robot’s only living company is a pet cockroach named Hal, which I guess is Pixar’s nod to the popular notion that cockroaches will outlive us all. (Or

Math has never been my strong suit. My wife, who has an M.B.A., sometimes shakes her head at my unsuccessful attempts to balance our checkbook. And I still remember sitting in my 10th Grade Algebra class with Ms. Babiak at Watchung Hills Regional High School back in the ‘70s and wishing that I could

Arnold Palmer once described golf as “deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.”  That’s a good description for insurance also.  (Fortunate for me, since I get paid to figure it out.)  Given the rules of construction, ambiguities (even latent ambiguities) in insurance policies are supposed to be construed against the carrier. I’ve therefore always wondered why the

I was saddened to learn that Judge Ruggero Aldisert, formerly of the Third Circuit, recently passed away.  I never had the privilege of appearing before Judge Aldisert, and I never met the man, but I feel indebted to him for writing two excellent books that were published through NITA:  “Logic for Lawyers” and “Winning on

I once heard a veteran of the complex commercial litigation wars describe the process as follows. “Each side hires an expert,” he said, “and the preponderance of perjury prevails.”

A cynical – if funny and unfortunately too-often-accurate – view.  Recognizing that expert witnesses are, in essence, paid advocates, the Supreme Court formulated the Daubert and

I recently got interviewed by Ed Beeson of the Newark Star-Ledger as part of his article about the looming Superstorm Sandy insurance coverage litigation.  The insurance industry has definitely circled the wagons, and the first suits are now being filed.  There will be a lot of battles over causation (e.g., wind versus flood), as well