If you read this blog, you have an interest in the very exciting subject of class actions against insurance companies. Either that or, more likely, it’s useful to your job to read the blog. If you have some downtime as the Summer winds down, and actually feel like reading even more about class actions, I’ve got two articles that might interest you. Or perhaps you want to put them on your shelf for when you have some downtime in the Fall.
First, I recently published in the FDCC Quarterly, a scholarly publication of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, an article entitled “Turning New Guns on Old Targets: Class Actions Against Insurance Companies.” (Incidentally, for any of you who have not heard of the FDCC, it’s a great organization of defense lawyers and in-house lawyers – check out their website and contact me if you’d like more information.) The article gives an overview of recent developments in insurance class actions, separated by line of business: property, auto, life and subrogation. So if you’re only interested in one of those lines of business you can just flip to that section of the article. At the end there is a section on the U.S. Supreme Court’s most recent class action decisions and my thoughts on their potential impact on insurance cases.
Second, I recently published an article in the Summer 2014 issue of TortSource, a publication of the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section. The article is entitled “Reaffirming Class Action Waivers in Arbitration Clauses,” and focuses on the Supreme Court’s decision in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant. If you’re an ABA TIPS member, you received this publication recently in the mail. Unfortunately, the web-based version of the publication is not up to date so I don’t have a link for you. If you’d like a copy of the article, e-mail me.