Beware of “Insurers Bearing Gifts”
Your insurers are not necessarily your friends. Their practical goal is to avoid paying money on any claim made by the insured. Despite the friendly, customer-first appearance they cultivate, many seemingly generous offers are often illusionary. A few common traps to be wary of are: (1) re-definition of policy terms which imbed limitations to coverage without expressly adding policy exclusions; (2) withholding of advice that an insured is entitled to independent counsel despite issuing a comprehensible reservation of rights that allows the insurer to change its mind about coverage as new facts come to light; and (3) reticence to truly pay defense fees or to advance payment of necessary sums to settle.
Securing Policy Benefits Beyond Insurer Shell Games
What’s the best approach to choosing an insurer based on policy language or service? As policy holder insurance coverage counsel, I am occasionally asked to assist policy holders in procuring coverage. In that capacity, I have analyzed a number of risks under CGL/Umbrella/Excess, D&O, E&O, Media, Cyber Media, Technology, IP, EPLI, Fiduciary, Crime, and a host of other forms of insurance coverage. My primary focus is policy language. That is what a court must interpret. Nonetheless, insurers that allow policyholder to retain independent counsel, where the law allows it, at rates they validate, and extend authority to resolve litigation within policy limits receive my recommendation.
ESTATE LITIGATION AND INSURANCE COVERAGE
While probate and civil litigation address legal issues in separate spheres, those distinct lawsuits often address interwoven factual disputes. Where procuring Professional Liability Trustee insurance is, more times than not, a viable solution, proactive acquisition of insurance coverage trustees placed in a fiduciary duty role. This, access to insurance coverage is more broadly available than many policyholders recognize.
TRIGGERS FOR RECOVERY OF PREJUDGMENT INTEREST
Where an insurer had denied a claim and many years have ensued until an adjudication of its duty to defend, prejudgment interest recovery can be significant. This, in turn, can make choice of the forum to pursue a coverage case, as well as what law that forum may apply, a critical decision element for coverage litigation.
Preferred General Partnership Liability ("GPL") Policies for Private Equity Firms
Private equity firms could be spending to much money on their D&O policies to cover their partnerships. Or, they could be leaving considerable gaps in their D&O policies to claims arising out of partnerships. A GPL policy can change all that, saving private equities money and providing critical coverage appropriate for private equity partnerships.
Securing Insurance Coverage Benefits Under Homeowners' Policies for Partnership Disputes
Business dissolutions, especially of professional partnerships, range from law to accounting to medical and other similar ventures. These events often include communications to existing clients of an organization to secure continuing relationships following the dissolution. It is anticipated that a departing professional will explain that the dissolution arose, what organization or form of entity they will join, and with whom. Objective statements about the new organization, the benefits available there, and the character of the professional’s practice going forward are all appropriate and cannot be a basis for asserted tortious conduct. However, it is not uncommon in these scenarios for professionals to express unflattering views about equity participants in the now-dissolved prior organizations.