The late, great comedian Alan King used to tell a story that went like this: “The other day, my house caught fire. My lawyer said, ‘Shouldn’t be a problem. What kind of coverage do you have?’ I said, ‘Fire and theft.’ The lawyer frowned. ‘Uh oh. Wrong kind. Should be fire OR theft.’”
Recently, a…
Lots of times, businesspeople who buy insurance make (reasonable) assumptions. For example: “If I have employment practices liability insurance, I must be covered for claims arising out of employment practices…right?”
Mmmmm…not so fast. Most EPLI policies contain a hidden gap that’s wide enough to drive an eighteen-wheeler through.
EPLI coverage came on the market a…
Awhile back on this blog, we were discussing developments in insurance bad faith law, and I hypothesized that Courts were generally more apt to find bad faith in cases involving a carrier’s delay of benefits, rather than outright denial. But what if the outright denial contains a bald-faced lie, or a deliberate omission? In that…
Back in the 1980s, when we were all fighting over the meaning of the “sudden and accidental” pollution exclusion, it became fashionable for coverage lawyers to quote “Alice in Wonderland.” If memory serves, there was even a battle of law review articles (sponsored by the insurance industry on one side and corporate policyholders on the…
To many policyholders, ERISA is a government program that simply backfired (sort of like Prohibition). That’s because ERISA considers an insurance company to be a “fiduciary.” Back in 1974, when ERISA was passed by Congress, the lawmakers figured that since the insurance company is a “fiduciary,” it must have the best interests of the injured…
Every now and then, a business owner asks me to review his company’s coverage program to make sure that adequate protection exists. I always say the same thing. “You’re looking at this all wrong. Buying insurance isn’t about buying protection. Buying insurance is about buying a right to sue an insurance company. Once you accept…
I’ve been reading Jay Feinman’s excellent book, Delay Deny Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. The book deals with the games insurance companies play in claims handling, especially in the personal lines arena. At one point, Feinman quotes from a great movie I haven’t seen in…
Got into a discussion recently with some of my policyholder counsel friends. They were lamenting the death of bad faith law in New Jersey. When a carrier unreasonably denies or delays paying a claim, the key case is supposed to be Pickett v. Lloyd’s, 131 N.J. 457 (1993), which was written by the late…
The SEC has been getting more and more aggressive with investigations into alleged securities fraud, as well as with filing civil securities fraud actions. In fact, we just got an SEC securities fraud action dismissed against one of our clients a couple of weeks ago…but it was an expensive fight. Over at Property Casualty 360…
Saw this post over at Property-Casualty 360 and got a kick out of it. Enjoy.