Gene Killian

Subscribe to Gene Killian's Posts
Contact:Read more about Gene Killian

One of the celebrities we lost in 2013 was the novelist Tom Clancy. I wasn’t a Clancy devotee, but I have to admit that “Red Storm Rising” and “The Hunt for Red October” were excellent military thrillers. In “Red October,” the KGB officer on board the Russian submarine (Red October) thinks that, rather than surrendering…

There’s an old story about famous Greek orators. When Demosthenes would speak, the people would say, “My, what a pretty speech!”  But when Cato would speak, the people would say, “On to Carthage.”  That’s because Cato was a one-issue guy (“Carthage must be destroyed”), and was excellent at convincing his listeners of the need for…

As the weeks following Sandy have stretched into months, and the months are beginning to stretch into years, businesses and homeowners with unresolved claims have been asking me whether it’s worthwhile to complain about their carrier to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance (“DOBI”).  Truth be told, it’s a complete waste of time.

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…

With the one-year anniversary of Sandy just having passed, many policyholders are asking how long they have to sue their carrier. Be careful. Many insurance policies contain limitations periods that shorten the general six-year statute of limitations for breach of contract in New Jersey. Such provisions are enforceable both in New Jersey and in New…

If you’re a Rolling Stones fan, you may remember the (underrated) 1974 song, “Fingerprint File.”  (You can hear it by clicking here…“Listenin’ to me/On your satellite.”)  Who knew that, four decades ago, Mick and Keith could be so prescient about cybersnooping and leaks of sensitive data?  Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, NSA, Nigerian scammers…even British …

Settling complex insurance claims involving multiple carriers can be like playing three-dimensional chess. (Since I can’t even play one-dimensional chess, that means it’s really difficult.) I once had a multimillion-dollar environmental insurance coverage settlement fall apart because one of the participating carriers would not assume an extra 1% of the coverage, despite (or perhaps because…

When I started in this business (yikes, a long time ago), we used to argue with insurance companies a lot about scintillating issues like whether environmental cleanup costs constituted “damages” under CGL policies, and whether “sudden” meant “abrupt” for purposes of the pollution exclusion. In fact, many coverage lawyers have sent their kids to college…