Insurance Coverage Litigation
Businesses and individuals spend enormous amounts of money buying insurance coverage. Most consumers of insurance products do not understand what they are actually buying most often because insurance policies - which are legally binding contracts - are almost impossible to decipher.
They are very lengthy, full of endorsements and limitations, and often contain material inconsistencies which the insurance companies rely upon in refusing to provide the coverage the insureds thought they had purchased.
We have been very successful enforcing insurance contracts against insurance companies who refuse to honor their contractual insurance obligations and enforcing insurance company statutory duties and obligations many have refused to comply with.
Our experience holding insurance companies responsible for the wrongful denial of coverage includes cases where coverage was denied for the following types of insured losses:
1 - substantial property damage losses following major storms or catastrophic events,
2 - a decline in business income caused by an event that results in a business having to shut down in whole or in part; and
3 - the untimely or unfair processing or payment of legitimate claims. In more instances than not, we also have been able to successfully include claims for penalties and interest, a recovery of attorney's fees, and discretionary damages arising if a jury finds the acts of the insurance company to constitute bad faith.
Finally, we routinely serve as a personal counsel to our clients who have been sued, and assigned an insurance defense lawyer to defend their interests. In this regard, we make sure the client is always the insured party - and not the insurance company. We make sure that coverage disagreements or reservations of rights do not interfere with or compromise the provision of a required defense and we often litigate coverage and duty questions while the case against our client is being defended under our careful watch.