By Norton Cutler, James (Jim) M. Davis, and Bradley Dlatt
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of businesses of all sizes have been forced to file lawsuits against their property insurers for failing to honor their contractual obligations to provide business interruption, extra expense, civil authority, and other coverage for the substantial losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, this onslaught of litigation has produced little progress thus far, leaving hundreds of business-owner plaintiffs and thousands more interested outside observers waiting for the funds they are rightfully owed.
This update discusses the lessons that businesses can learn from these early decisions and proposes guidance on how to generate meaningful progress towards timely resolution of such COVID-19 coverage disputes.