The United States District Court for the District of Kansas, applying Kansas law, has held that an insurer must show prejudice to deny coverage when an insured provided notice of a claim within the policy’s three-year policy...more
Many contracts include a choice-of-law provision in which the parties agree to use a particular jurisdiction’s set of laws to govern the contract. These provisions promote predictability. No matter where a dispute may arise...more
The California Supreme Court has struck a blow to insurers' attempts to contract out of more policyholder friendly jurisdictions, holding that the notice-prejudice rule is a fundamental public policy. Pitzer College v. Indian...more
In Pitzer College v. Indian Harbor Insurance Company, the California Supreme Court resolved two previously open questions in insurance law: (1) it concluded that the notice-prejudice rule is a fundamental public policy of...more
In answering two questions posed to it by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the California Supreme Court on August 29, 2019, addressed two significant issues: 1) whether California’s common law notice-prejudice rule is a...more
Insurers frequently raise the timing of notice as a defense to a policyholder’s claim for coverage. This is an “all or nothing defense,” as “late notice” can create a forfeiture of coverage. As a result, it gets litigated...more
Insurance law generally imposes on a policyholder the duty to give timely notice of claims to its insurance company. Sometimes, because of forgetfulness, ignorance, neglect, or a number of other reasons, companies fail to...more
On Monday, April 25, 2016, the Colorado Supreme Court issued its decision in Travelers Prop. Cas. Co. v. Stresscon Co., No. 13SC815 (Colo. Apr. 25, 2016), holding that an insurer does not need to show prejudice to enforce a...more
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that an insurer may disclaim coverage without showing it was prejudiced by a policyholder’s failure to comply with a claims-made policy’s notice provision. In Templo Fuente De...more