BarbriSFCourseDetails
  1. keyboard_arrow_leftBack

Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Thursday, September 7, 2023

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will update insurance counsel on the latest developments in applying noncumulation provisions in CGL policies to deny coverage in long-tail claims. The panel will outline best practices for counsel to insureds or insurers to argue for maximizing coverage or minimizing liability.

Faculty

Mary E. Borja
Partner
Wiley Rein LLP

Ms. Borja represents insurers in complex litigation and arbitration involving professional liability, general liability, crime, and property insurance coverage. She provides advice and counsel on a wide range of insurance issues, including legal malpractice and other errors and omissions claims, director and officer liability, bankruptcy, crime, construction defect, environmental liability, technology, emerging issues, and bad faith.

expand_circle_down Expand to View Full Bio expand_circle_up Collapse Bio
Sherilyn Pastor
Partner
McCarter & English

Ms. Pastor is Practice Group Leader of her firm's Insurance Coverage Group. She is an experienced trial attorney, who has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance for corporate policyholders. She litigates complex coverage matters throughout the country and abroad, and provides insurance coverage advice to clients assessing their potential risks, analyzing new insurance products, and considering the adequacy of their programs. She publishes and lectures frequently on insurance, trial skills and ethics matters. 

expand_circle_down Expand to View Full Bio expand_circle_up Collapse Bio

Description

One of the most complex issues in insurance coverage disputes involves long-tail claims such as asbestos bodily injury and environmental claims. These claims raise complex questions of how to allocate liabilities among numerous policy years triggered by such losses.

Insurers seek to minimize or eliminate the obligation to pay long-tail claims by arguing that the "prior insurance and noncumulation of liability clause" shifts responsibility for paying for losses that trigger multiple policy years to triggered policies issued before their policy year.

Policyholders argue that noncumulation clauses are ambiguous as a host of unresolved coverage questions arise in attempting to apply such terms to long-tail claims.

Listen as our authoritative panel of insurance practitioners guides you through an analysis of noncumulation clauses in CGL policies and the ways courts have interpreted these clauses.

Outline

  1. Background: interpretation and application of noncumulation clauses
    1. Typical policy language
    2. London version of clause
    3. Triggers of coverage
    4. Allocation
  2. Court interpretations and applications of noncumulation clauses
    1. Pro-rata jurisdictions
    2. All-sums jurisdictions
    3. Reduction, but not the elimination of insurer's payment obligation
  3. Applicable insurance policy interpretation principles
    1. Contra proferentem
    2. Reasonable expectations doctrine
    3. Construction of policy as a whole

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • How are triggers of coverage and allocation methods impacted by noncumulation clauses?
  • How have courts in pro-rata vs. all-sums jurisdictions differed in their interpretations and applications of noncumulation clauses?
  • What insurance policy construction principles are applicable in interpreting noncumulation clauses?