General Liability
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May 30, 2025
Townhome Org. Seeks Confirmation Of Storm Damage Award
A townhome association's insurer has no legal basis to withhold payments under a $2.7 million appraisal award for costs connected to a 2022 storm, the association told a Minnesota federal court Friday in a bid for an early win in its suit.
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May 30, 2025
Insurer's Hail Claim Denial Not Unreasonable, 10th Circ. Says
A commercial property owner failed to show that its insurer unreasonably denied coverage for a hail damage claim under Colorado law or violated insurance industry standards by relying on an expert report, the Tenth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion Friday.
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May 29, 2025
Insurer Waived Arbitration For Many Reasons, NJ Panel Rules
An insurer waived its right to arbitration for many reasons, a New Jersey appellate panel affirmed, finding a pier owner's coverage dispute concerning underlying litigation brought against it by public utilities blaming it for a fluid leak in the Hudson River must head to trial.
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May 29, 2025
Q&A: What's The Deal With Insurance-Linked Securities?
The use of insurance-linked securities has boomed in recent years, helping increase overall global reinsurance capacity and allowing investors to participate in reinsurance transactions without having to become licensed reinsurers themselves. Here, Law360 talks to Nicholas Berry, a London-based partner at Norton Rose Fulbright, on the mechanics of ILS transactions and why he thinks this alternative asset type is here to stay.
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May 29, 2025
FDA Changes May Put CGL Policies In Play, Experts Say
Changing regulations at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under the Trump administration may make food contamination risks a higher concern for certain policyholders, and insureds should closely review their commercial general liability and product recall policies for potential coverage, experts say.
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May 29, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
Towers Watson's insurers don't have to cover shareholder litigation, the Fifth Circuit said its hands were tied concerning fire damage arbitration, North Carolina's highest court allowed a homeowner who didn't read his policy to continue his agency negligence case and a Georgia couple say two personal injury firms misled them. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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May 28, 2025
Insurers Get Meta MDL Coverage Fight Kicked Back To Del.
A California federal judge has ruled that Meta Platforms' sprawling dispute with dozens of insurers over coverage for personal injury multidistrict litigation belongs in Delaware state court, where two Hartford Insurance Group units first sued, rejecting Meta's claims Hartford acted in bad faith in suing in Delaware, along with other arguments.
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May 28, 2025
Insurer Questions Coverage Of Ohio Tenant Harassment Case
An Ohio insurer filed a federal lawsuit arguing on Wednesday that it is not obligated to defend or indemnify Athens County, Ohio, landlords accused in a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit of allowing sex discrimination and harassment against female tenants at at least one rental property for years.
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May 28, 2025
Insurer Fights Coverage Of Patent Suit Against Dental Co.
An insurer told a Michigan federal court it is not obligated to defend or indemnify a dental products company in an underlying patent infringement case, arguing that the claims fall outside the scope of the commercial liability coverage.
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May 27, 2025
Pharma Co. Says Chubb Failed To Pay Covered Defense Costs
A New Jersey pharmaceutical company said Chubb owes nearly $6.5 million in outstanding defense costs related to a multibillion-dollar arbitration dispute over the manufacture of an antiviral drug, according to a suit removed to federal court Tuesday.
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May 27, 2025
Property Co. Not Covered In Condo Fire Suits, Insurer Says
A property management company isn't covered for suits claiming it hired an unlicensed contractor whose work caused a fire at a condo complex, an insurer told a Florida federal court, saying coverage isn't available under a commercial general liability policy and is limited under a professional liability policy.
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May 23, 2025
Mich. Justices To Hear Appeal Over Auto Policy Rescission
The Michigan Supreme Court agreed to hear a dispute over whether an appeals court correctly held that a Progressive unit could rescind a woman's auto policy because of misrepresentations in her insurance application after a trial court ruled the insurer had to reform the policy instead.
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May 23, 2025
Atty, Stepdaughter Face $600K Workers' Comp Fraud Charges
The Orange County District Attorney's Office has charged a California attorney and his stepdaughter with conspiring to defraud a police department she was employed at by filing fraudulent workers' compensation payments.
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May 23, 2025
Judge Tells Boat Crash Widow To Replead $66M Insurer Suit
A Florida federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by the widow of the victim of a fatal boat crash seeking to get insurers to pay $66 million judgments but told the widow to replead her claims without the bad faith allegations to streamline discovery in the first stage of the litigation.
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May 23, 2025
Mich. Justices Agree To Hear Insurer's PIP Benefits Appeal
The Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to review a split lower court's finding that an auto insurer must provide personal injury protection, or PIP, benefits to a policyholder's son who was injured in an out-of-state tractor-trailer crash.
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May 23, 2025
Furniture Cos. Say Insurer Owes For $10M Flood Losses
Two metro Detroit furniture stores accuse an insurer of breach of contract after it refused to cover more than $10 million in collective damages caused by flooding from a ruptured city water supply line in a case removed to Michigan federal court.
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May 22, 2025
Affirmative AI Coverage Challenges Specialty Insurance Lines
Boutiques and major insurers alike have recently issued long-anticipated affirmative coverage for artificial intelligence risks, a divisive bet on the increased need for explicit protection and pricing of the technology's specific risks, even as existing policies offer many similar protections.
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May 22, 2025
Virus Coverage Revival Loss Shows Import Of Judicial Finality
A North Carolina federal court's ruling that Golden Corral can't set aside a judgment against its bid for pandemic-related coverage despite recent policyholder success in the state Supreme Court highlighted the importance of judicial finality, while marking the difference between state and federal courts weighing insurance issues.
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May 22, 2025
Mich. Justices To Review Nationwide's Unitary Tax Filing Win
The Michigan Supreme Court agreed Thursday to weigh an appeal by the state's tax agency of a decision that said Nationwide entities could file their taxes as a unitary group to share tax credits among its members.
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May 22, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The U.S. Supreme Court passed on insurer challenges to tribal jurisdiction in COVID-19 coverage cases, a Washington federal court approved Symetra's $32.5 million overcharging settlement, legal malpractice claims outpace inflation and a condo association's timing in serving an insurer helped it avoid removal to Florida federal court.
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May 21, 2025
Zurich Gets Default Win In $4.6M Contractor Coverage Spat
Zurich American Insurance Co. doesn't owe coverage to two subcontractors accused of bungling work on a Georgia natural gas plant, a federal judge has ruled, granting the insurer a default win in its suit seeking to nullify a $4.6 million claim.
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May 21, 2025
Insurer Demands Shipper Pay $480K For Spoiled Crabmeat
An insurer asked a New York federal court on Wednesday to force a Taiwanese shipper to pay over $480,000 for crabmeat that the carrier alleged was spoiled en route from the Philippines to Norfolk, Virginia.
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May 21, 2025
SC Justices Affirm Receivership Order In Asbestos Dispute
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld a trial court's decision to appoint a receiver over a Canadian company's insurance assets as part of discovery sanctions in an asbestos injury lawsuit, despite the company's contention it possesses no property in the state.
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May 20, 2025
Full 11th Circ. Asked To Review Case Of Fla. Lodge Shooting
A Virginia insurer petitioned for a full Eleventh Circuit panel hearing to review a three-judge opinion holding that a jury should decide whether it was in bad faith to not settle a case of a woman who was killed in a Florida lodge shooting, saying the ruling could make insurance more expensive.
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May 19, 2025
Carrier's Kidde-Fenwal Ch. 11 Deal Barred By Purdue, AGs Say
Connecticut and other states Monday objected to Carrier Global Corp.'s proposed $540 million deal releasing it from "forever chemicals" litigation liability through its ownership of bankrupt firefighting foam manufacturer Kidde-Fenwal Inc., saying the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a similar deal in drugmaker Purdue Pharma LP's bankruptcy case.
Expert Analysis
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The 7th Circ.'s Top 10 Civil Opinions Of 2024
Attorneys at Jenner & Block examine the most significant decisions issued by the Seventh Circuit in 2024, and explain how they may affect issues related to mass arbitration, consumer fraud, class certification and more.
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Insurance Considerations For LA Wildfire Recovery
Businesses and homeowners affected by the destructive Southern California wildfires must act swiftly and strategically to navigate the complexities of the insurance recovery process, including by identifying all applicable policies, documenting damage thoroughly and keeping abreast of relevant state law, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Artfully Conceding Liability Can Offer Defendants 3 Benefits
In the rare case that a company makes the strategic decision to admit liability, it’s important to do so clearly and consistently in order to benefit from the various forms of armor that come from an honest acknowledgment, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.
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What Insurers Should Know About AI Use In Litigation
As the use of artificial intelligence in litigation evolves, insurers should note standing court orders, instances of judges utilizing AI to determine policy definitions and the application of evidentiary standards to expert evidence that incorporates AI, says Sarah Abrams at Baleen Specialty.
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5 Litigation Funding Trends To Note In 2025
Lawyers and their clients must be prepared to navigate an evolving litigation funding market in 2025, made more complicated by a new administration and the increasing overall cost of litigation, says Jeffery Lula at GLS Capital.
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Rethinking Litigation Risk And What It Really Means To Win
Attorneys have a tendency to overestimate litigation risk before summary judgment and underestimate risk after it, but an eight-stage litigation framework can clarify risk at different points and help litigators reassess what true success looks like in any particular case, says Joshua Libling at Arcadia Finance.
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A Federal Insurance Mandate For Private Aviation Is Overdue
A recent private plane crash in California that killed two people and injured 19 others spotlights the dangers of such occurrences — and serves as a reminder that because there is no federal requirement for general aviation pilots to carry insurance, the victims of these accidents are often unable to obtain fair compensation, says Timothy Loranger at Wisner Baum.
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6 Predictions For Cyber Risk And Insurance In 2025
This year is likely to bring with it some thorny and expensive cyber challenges, including increased ransomware activity, more data breach class actions and continued efforts to define business interruption loss calculations, say attorneys at Wiley.
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Defense Strategies For Addressing Conspiracy-Minded Jurors
As conspiracy theories continue to proliferate and gain traction in the U.S., defense attorneys will need to consider ways to keep conspiracy-minded jurors from sitting on the jury, and to persuade them when this isn’t possible, say consultants at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Surprise NC COVID Ruling Revises Reasonable Expectations
The North Carolina Supreme Court's recent finding in favor of policyholders in a suit for business interruption coverage due to COVID-19 shutdown orders runs contrary to most other state and federal courts' holdings on the issue, and may revitalize the reasonable expectations doctrine in the state, say attorneys at Goldberg Segalla.
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How Trial Attys Can Wield Amended Federal Evidence Rules
Trial lawyers should assess recent amendments to four Federal Rules of Evidence and a newly enacted rule on illustrative aids to determine how to best use the rules to enhance pretrial discovery and trial strategy, says Stewart Edelstein, former litigation chair at Cohen & Wolf.
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Mich. Ruling Offers View On 'Occurrence' Coverage Definition
As demonstrated by a Michigan state court in its recent decision finding per-wound insurance coverage for a school shooting, the amount of coverage available under occurrence-based policies often depends on how courts interpret "occurrence," say attorneys at Hunton.
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Identifying Deepfakes During Evidence Collection, Discovery
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Attorneys must familiarize themselves with the tools used to create and detect deepfakes — media manipulated by artificial intelligence to convincingly mimic real people and events — as well as best practices for keeping this fabricated evidence out of court, says Bijan Ghom at Saxton & Stump.