Hinshaw Releases Second Edition of Duty to Defend: A Fifty-State Survey
Loading and Unloading Under GL and Auto Policies: 2022
Prior & Pending Litigation
What is a Damron Agreement?
While cyber liability coverage decisions are usually few and far between, courts in two jurisdictions have issued buzzworthy rulings this summer. Originally published by CLM Magazine - September 9, 2025....more
As anyone with a large insurance practice knows, insurance companies sometimes reach out to outside counsel not to request the defense of a lawsuit against an insured (or perhaps the insurer itself), but instead to ask for a...more
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, applying Pennsylvania law, has held that the allegations against two attorneys named in a malpractice lawsuit constituted a single “claim” under a...more
Northern District Finds Modified Employer’s Liability Exclusion In Policy Ambiguous - The general contractor for a construction project hired DJ Heating & Cooling to perform HVAC work at the project and Rocker II Drywall...more
The United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, applying New York law, has determined that an insurer had a duty to defend an insured because a carve-out to the relevant pollution exclusion applied....more
In the recently published case Bartel v. Chicago Title Insurance Company, a California appellate court reaffirmed longstanding California law on insurers’ broad duty to defend even in the face of complicated underlying facts,...more
In Wilson v. Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Insurance Co., the New Mexico Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision granting summary judgment to an insurer after determining that bad faith claims on a...more
“Arising out of” is a phrase commonly found in an insurance policy. It’s a broad phrase, and courts construe it that way. When this phrase appears in an exclusion, courts often apply a “but for” causation test. And that may...more
On July 9, 2025, in Hammond Power Solutions Inc. v. National Union Fire Insurance Co., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision granting summary judgment to the insurer and finding, under...more
Michael Cannata and Frank Misiti wrote, “There’s Coverage for That? The ‘Ins and Outs’ of Personal and Advertising Injury Coverage” for the Summer 2025 issue of USLAW Magazine. The story explains “personal and advertising”...more
On March 19, 2025, Judge Reed O’Connor in Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. N. Tarrant Infrastructure LLC, No. 4:23-cv-01043-O, 2025 WL 863470 (N.D. Tex. Mar. 19, 2025) held that under the Eight-Corners Rule, Liberty...more
As a father of three children, I have become intimately familiar with this defense to all manner of allegations (which, yes, often involve property damage). When it comes to coverage disputes, you often see insureds making...more
John H. Fisher and his P.C. represented a client in a medical malpractice action filed on February 15, 2019, alleging that the defendant medical providers failed to provide proper prenatal care to the client, causing the...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, applying California law, has affirmed a district court’s determination that California Insurance Code § 533 barred indemnity and defense costs coverage for a lawsuit...more
Key Points: A workers’ compensation insurance carrier normally does not have a duty to pay benefits for an intentional injury claim....more
In Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance Company v. Hampton Court, L.P., et al. the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted an insurer's motion for judgment on the pleadings that it owed...more
This insurance-coverage dispute involved alleged asbestos exposure from asbestos-containing vermiculite mined from Vermiculite Mountain outside of Libby, Mont. The court acknowledged that vermiculite ore may contain toxic...more
Applying Indiana state law, the Indiana Court of Appeals has held that a breach of contract exclusion did not preclude a duty to defend under an employment practices liability policy because some of the underlying allegations...more
The 2014 Home Depot data breach was one of the more notorious cyberattacks. A decade later, litigation over that incident continues. The Sixth Circuit recently decided whether an electronic data exclusion cleared insurers...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, applying Georgia law, has held that the electronic data exclusion in commercial general liability (CGL) policies issued to a retail store company precluded coverage...more
Rodrigues v. Shelbourne Spring, LLC, No. A-39-23 (December 12, 2024) - In a unanimous decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court found Hartford Underwriters Insurance Company had no duty to defend the employer, SIR Electric LLC....more
We kick off the year with a quartet of state supreme court decisions and an intermediate appellate court ruling that has insurers breathing a harmonious sigh of relief. Policyholders and insurers often disagree over what the...more
Fernandez v. Old Republic Nat’l Title Ins. Co., Fla. 3d DCA, No. 3D23-1088, December 4, 2024 - The Third District Court of Appeals reversed a trial court’s ruling and ordered the insurance carrier, Old Republic National Title...more
An owner, general contractor (GC) and subcontractor (Sub) were sued by injured workers at a construction site, and they were defended by the Sub’s insurer, U.S. Specialty Insurance Company. U.S. Specialty tendered their...more
There’s been plenty of litigation over whether construction defect claims qualify for coverage under a CGL policy. This month, we discuss two federal circuit court rulings (First and Seventh Circuits) that reach opposite...more