On March 13, 2020, three plainclothes police officers forced entry into an apartment and fired some 32 shots. A woman sleeping in her bed was shot six times and died. On May 25, 2020, a Black man was killed during a routine arrest when a police officer knelt on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. On September 3, 2020, a woman drove her car into a crowd of Black…

A recent article in Law360 shines a spotlight on an Amended Complaint filed by Pillsbury’s award-winning Insurance Recovery and Advisory Group in a significant insurance recovery action seeking coverage for COVID-19 business interruption. In it, the Amended Complaint is described as a “beefed-up filing” where our colleagues have “unleashed a deluge of scientific studies on COVID-19.” The article  suggests that the “the arguments outlined in Tuesday’s filing could be a potential avenue around Mama Jo’s…

In recent weeks, two insurers with significant legacies of occurrence-based general liability coverage took important steps to liquidate their estates. Bedivere Insurance Company (OneBeacon) Liquidation The first insurers are associated with Bedivere Insurance Company, formerly known as OneBeacon Insurance Company (OBIC). OBIC’s history stretches back to the 1800s but is most well known as the successor to the General Accident and Commercial Union families of insurers. These companies wrote many policies from the 1960s through…

Insurers generally have a statutory duty to provide a legitimate factual and legal basis to deny a claim, and to discharge this duty sometimes engage in-house or outside counsel to assist in the investigation and handling of policyholders’ claims for coverage, including ghostwriting coverage correspondence and denials of coverage. The decision to outsource ordinary claims investigation and handling to legal counsel (putting aside that many claims handlers are lawyers) comes at a price. Two recent…

As those who experienced the Texas winter storm crisis are likely discovering, vital questions of coverage and recovery linger—and in some cases, first appear—long after the ice has melted and power has been restored. In “Texas Winter Storms: Evaluating Business Interruption Claims Following a Large-Scale Disaster,” Joseph D. Jean, Tamara D. Bruno and Richard C. Giller examine some of the challenging questions about business interruption insurance coverage raised in the aftermath of…

In another dramatic weather event, the recent severe winter conditions in Texas introduced unprecedented hardship for Texans and devastating damage for nearly every industry sector. In “Preparing Your Personal and Business Insurance Claims: Responding to the Texas Winter Storm Crisis,” Tamara D. Bruno, Richard C. Giller and Joseph D. Jean discuss the emerging insurance recovery, legal, commercial, regulatory and, in some respects, operational considerations that industries should be prepared to address in…