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. In the liability insurance context, the issue of allocating defense costs and indemnity payments arises between insurers on a regular basis. In the insurance context, equitable contribution permits the allocation of costs and indemnity where there is more than one …
Most jurisdictions hold that every contract form contains an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing that prohibits either contracting party from preventing or injuring the other party’s right to receive the agreed benefits of the contract. Practical Tools …
Territorial limitation clauses can be found universally in domestic and international insurance policies. Under this coverage restriction, the policy typically covers “bodily injury” if the “bodily injury … is caused by an occurrence that takes place in the coverage territory.” …
In many states, the insured has a general duty to read the insurance policy. See Practical Tools for Handling Insurance Cases, § 2:28, pp. 43, fn.1 (Thomson Reuters, 2012 Supplement) (citing cases). Other courts have affirmatively rejected a duty to …
Placing the value on bodily injury claims is inherently speculative. To remove some of the guess work from ascertaining a proper value for general damages, some insurance companies utilize a comprehensive software program called Colossus. The Colossus software attempts to …
All-risk policies insure fortuitous losses that are not excluded by the policy. The use of the phrase “all-risk,” however, is somewhat of a misnomer because the policy itself contains numerous specific exclusions. In that regard, “all risks” does not mean …
On January 26, 2011 the general assembly of the South Carolina legislature amended S.C. CODE ANN. § 38-61-70 to require all commercial general liability insurance policies to provide coverage for “property damage or bodily injury resulting from faulty workmanship, exclusive …
A majority of courts in the country have found that if a claimant files a mixed lawsuit containing both covered and uncovered claims the insurance company is generally obligated to defend all claims against the insured, notwithstanding the fact that …
Courts are split on whether an excess insurer can sue the primary insurer’s defense counsel for legal malpractice. There are two competing viewpoints that have emerged in the limited published case law. As an example, in American Centennial Ins. Co. …
When an excess insurer is not given notice of a lawsuit with potential excess exposure, the opportunity to participate in mediation is an important right. Where the excess insurer is deprived of this opportunity, it may be prejudiced as a …