Steven Plitt is the current successor author to Couch on Insurance, 3d. He maintains a national coverage practice with The Cavanagh Law Firm. He has been listed continuously as one of Arizona's 50 lawyers by Southwest Super Lawyers. He can be reached splitt@cavanaghlaw.com. To read additional articles by Steven Plitt, go to www.insuranceexpertplitt.com. “Stigma damages” and “diminished value” damages are not synonymous concepts. “Diminished value” damages generally are available where a vehicle sustains physical damage in an accident, but due to the nature of the damage, the vehicle could not be fully restored …
Does a carbon monoxide leak in a duplex apartment building constitute a single occurrence or multiple occurrences for purposes of liability insurance? This question was recently answered by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeal in Kosnoski v. Rogers, 2014 …
Recently the Wisconsin Supreme Court narrowed the concept of “occurrence” as defined in homeowners policies. In Schinner v. Gundrum, 349 Wis.2d 529, 833 N.W.2d 685 (2013), the court held the insured’s actions in setting up an isolated shed for a …
Recently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that the insured’s eight month delay in providing notice of the involvement of a phantom vehicle in an accident violated the policy’s notice requirement, voiding UM coverage without it showing of prejudice to the …
Subrogation permits a party who has paid a debt to step into the shoes of another (usually the debtee) to assume his or her legal rights against a third party to prevent that party’s unjust enrichment where a loss has …
The insurance company’s duty to defend commonly requires the insurance company to hire legal counsel although that requirement may not be present in every case. The issue of dual representation recently came before the Montana Supreme Court in State Farm …
The Colorado Court of Appeals recently held that before an insurance company can invoke an insurance policy voluntary payment clause as a defense to the insurer’s obligation to pay for an unnoticed settlement, that the insurer was required to prove …
Standard insurance policies exclude coverage for sexual misconduct. As an example, with respect to sexual molestations, the sexual misconduct may not constitute an accident triggering coverage under the insuring clause of the policy. See Steven Plitt and Jordan R. Plitt, …
For the most part, the question of which statute of limitations applies (tort or contract) to UM/UIM cases has been resolved throughout most of the states. The majority view is that the contract statute of limitations applies which is triggered …
Most jurisdictions have held that an insurance company with the primary policy owes a duty of good faith and fair dealing to the insurance company with the excess policy requiring a settlement of claims within the primary carrier’s policy limits …