Insurance Disputes


Our insurance lawyers generally serve the legal needs of our business clients who, from time to time, find themselves involved in contractual issues or litigation in which there are significant (and often complex) insurance issues, such as:

Insurance Coverage Disputes

All too often, an insurance company’s first response to its policyholder, when a claim arises, is a reflexive denial of coverage or a so-called “reservation of rights” that may just prelude a coverage dispute.  The insurer may deny that it has any duty to defend its policyholder, it may deny that it has any duty to indemnify the policyholder against the underlying claim, or it may deny both.  Sometimes such a denial or a reservation of rights is justified, but frequently the insurer is taking an aggressive position in favor its own policyholder, in order to keep the insurance company’s own losses to a minimum, while leaving you in what may amount to a “company killer” scenario.

When this happens, you may perceive that the insurance company probably understands its own policies better than you ever will. You may even accept the insurance company’s denial or severe limitation of coverage when – under a fair reading of the entire policy – coverage actually exists.  In short, unless somebody stands up to an insurer when it wrongfully denies coverage, the insurance company may get away with it. 

Our attorneys stand up to insurance companies to protect your company’s assets.

The Interplay Between Various Types of Policies

Our insurance lawyers have extensive experience assisting clients with coverage issues arising from many different types of insurance policies, such as:

  • Commercial General Liability (CGL) Policies
  • Excess and Umbrella Policies
  • Property Insurance and Other Casualty Policies
  • Professional Liability Policies
  • Environmental or Pollution Liability Policies
  • Errors & Omissions Policies (E&O)
  • Directors & Officers Policies (D&O)

We also assist clients with coverages specific to the construction industry, to manufacturers or to distribution businesses, such as:

  • Products/Completed Operations Coverage
  • Special Coverage Purchased for Specific Projects
  • Architect & Engineer Liability Policies
  • Other Design Professional Policies
  • Builders Risk Coverage
  • Project “Wrap” Insurance
  • Products Liability Coverage
  • Recall Coverage

Insurers with different policy types often point fingers when dealing with a claim.  The result of this game can be that none of the insurers make an effort to protect the rights of the insured.

We don’t play games. 

Our insurance attorneys work to sort out the web of coverages that may potentially apply to any given fact pattern.  We believe that your business has a right to expect that the insurance coverage that you bought and paid for will actually doing something – and do it promptly – when a claim or loss arises.

Construction-Related Insurance

We are experienced in dealing with the types of insurance and coverages that arise most frequently in the context of construction projects and construction defects.  Those include policies and coverages such as:

  • Commercial General Liability Policies of owners, developers, contractors, design professionals, materials suppliers and subcontractors
  • Excess and Umbrella Policies of the various project participants
  • Products / Completed Operations Coverage
  • Special Coverage Purchased for Specific Projects
  • Architect & Engineer Liability Policies
  • Other Design Professional Policies
  • Builders Risk Coverage
  • Project “Wrap” Insurance

Several of our lawyers have experience both in the substantive legal and factual issues that arise out of construction projects, as well as in the insurance issues.  Therefore, they have the practical and legal background to deal effectively with the sometimes complex interplay between the requirements of the construction contracts for the job and the insurance that was actually obtained (or that should have been obtained) by the various project participants, such as:

  • Compliance with the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and other form contract provisions relating to insurance
  • Additional insured requirements
  • Contractual indemnity clauses, and how those relate to insurance
  • Waivers of consequential damages
  • Waivers of subrogation
  • Which construction project participant’s insurance should be “primary”
  • Insurance company breaches of the duty to defend their insureds
  • Insurer and adjuster conflicts of interest