Mea culpa. I haven’t written here in a while, because I’ve been focusing my creative juices on developing a new podcast about effective negotiation and communication skills. (Shameless plug: Please check it out! It’s called Station 4 Negotiation and it’s available on all of the major podcast platforms.) But I had to return to discuss
Contract construction
The trouble with “no action” clauses
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Contract construction, Delay, Deny, Defend
I had a brief but interesting conversation with a couple of colleagues recently. The topic was so-called “no action” clauses in liability insurance policies. “No action” clauses try to create a “get out of jail free” card for the carrier, at least temporarily. A typical one reads: “You agree not to bring any action against…
Insurance policy notice provisions, and a mistake by a Supreme Court nominee
By Gene Killian on
I hesitated to write this blog post, which is intended to be nonpolitical. We’re currently in the middle of an exceedingly nasty election season, and any topic that even remotely touches on politics is likely to lead to online mayhem. But I was intrigued by the confirmation hearings I watched yesterday for President Trump’s Supreme…
The problem of illusory coverage
By Gene Killian on
Posted in Contract construction, Errors and Omissions
In the “Cheese Shop” sketch from the old Monty Python comedy series, John Cleese plays a customer trying to buy some cheese from “Ye National Cheese Emporium, purveyor of fine cheese to the gentry (and the poverty-stricken too)”. The cheese shop proprietor, played by Michael Palin, seems to have no cheese in stock, not even…
Enforcing insurance coverage for intellectual property claims
By Gene Killian on
Because most people think that insurance law is about as exciting as watching grass grow, I try to be somewhat entertaining in these posts. Probably I usually fail, but at least I keep myself amused.
If there’s one thing that we wannabe comedians hate, though, it’s being upstaged. I was recently reading a decision from…
The “reasonable expectations” doctrine in insurance coverage
By Gene Killian on
There’s a very true old quote about interpreting insurance policies that I (and other policyholder lawyers) like to cite. It goes: “Ambiguity and incomprehensibility seem to be the favorite tools of the insurance trade in drafting policies. Most are a virtually impenetrable thicket of incomprehensible verbosity…The miracle of it all is that the English language…
Forum selection clauses in insurance policies
By Gene Killian on
My wife has been pestering me to get out of an unused gym membership for some time. See, as a lawyer, I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I neglected to read the small print in the contract. It said that, unless I canceled in writing, the contract would automatically renew for one-year terms (kind of…
Ambiguity in insurance policies
By Gene Killian on
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over four years since Superstorm Sandy hit New Jersey. Back then, figuring that discretion was the better part of valor, I gathered up my family and drove out to Pennsylvania to wait out the storm. (I still take abuse for that tactic from one of my neighbors, who…
The assignment of insurance policies and claims
By Gene Killian on
I’ve been a trial lawyer for over 30 years, and I think I need to point out that corporate/transactional lawyers aren’t real lawyers. If you haven’t been on the receiving end of an evidence ruling that makes you wonder whether the judge attended law school in a Winnebago, then I’m sorry, you may be a…
Yes, construction defects are covered “occurrences” in New Jersey
By Gene Killian on
Are you the parent of a teenager? Have you ever been the parent of a teenager? If the answer to either of those two questions is yes, have you ever felt like you’re banging your head against the wall? You think you’re speaking plain English, but they’re just not getting it.
That’s the way I…