Allocation of Liability and Exhaustion of Policy Limits: Policyholder and Carrier Perspectives
Indemnity Allocation Among Multiple Policies and Lines of Insurance, Horizontal vs. Vertical Exhaustion, Set-Off and Contribution

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Insurance
- event Date
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
- schedule Time
1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT
- timer Program Length
90 minutes
-
This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.
This CLE course will provide insurance counsel with the latest developments in liability allocation, factors involved in allocation of losses, a review of critical issues in horizontal and vertical exhaustion, the interrelationship between the liability of the primary carrier and the excess insurer, allocation among multiple lines of insurance, and best practices to resolve priority of coverage disputes.
Faculty

Mr. Seaman is a commercial litigator and trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience. Scott is widely regarded as one of the leading attorneys in the United States representing insurers and reinsurers in property and casualty matters. He is known for employing his deep knowledge of the law and insurance industry, strategic thinking, and honed trial and appellate advocacy to produce creative solutions and outstanding results for clients. Clients regularly turn to Scott and his team for counsel and representation in challenging and high-stakes insurance and business matters. Mr. Seaman has a long track record of successfully representing companies before trial courts, appellate courts, and arbitration panels across the country in a variety of cases and matters involving general liability coverage (primary, umbrella, and excess), professional liability coverage, directors and officers liability insurance, first-party property coverage, bad faith and extra-contractual matters, fee disputes, and facultative and treaty reinsurance contracts. He also advises and represents companies on cyber, privacy, data breach, IoT, nanotechnology, gig economy, viruses and pandemics, representations and warranties, transactional insurance, social unrest, ESG, climate change, and other emerging issues, as well as a wide-range of case-specific and portfolio issues. He also has handled a variety of challenging international, professional liability, health/life science, director and officer liability, tort and product liability, and business and commercial cases.
He was named to the inaugural list of Midwest Trailblazers by The American Lawyer magazine for his "high-profile, complex insurance coverage cases nationwide, which resulted in precedent setting rulings that have altered insurance law." He is co-author of Allocation of Losses in Complex Insurance Coverage Claims (11th Ed. 2023) He is ranked Band I by Chambers USA.

Mr. Oshinsky has more than 30 years of experience litigating insurance recovery cases in federal and state courts throughout the U.S. on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and others in the chemical, pharmaceutical, financial, food, education and health industries. He litigates some of the most significant, complex insurance coverage issues in the country, applying theories which he developed that have guided insurance recovery law since its inception. Mr. Oshinsky also advises clients about how to maximize their insurance assets, and he is frequently selected as a party-appointed arbitrator in complex insurance coverage disputes.
Description
Allocating indemnity presents challenges for both policyholders and insurers, especially in continuous damage claims, where there is more than one policy period, an insurer with more than one policy in play, and multiple insurers. Allocation raises a host of other concerns, such as the insured's ability to stack policies.
Another issue that arises with increased frequency is the allocation among multiple lines of insurance. For example, what are the practice considerations when one claim impacts D&O, E&O, and CGL policies?
Practitioners face challenging issues when the parties disagree over who should pay a claim and the payment order among the applicable insurance policies. Counsel must understand when and how vertical and horizontal insurance exhaustion of policy limits apply and the principles related to triggering excess policies.
Unique challenges are present when the primary insurer settles a claim for less than the policy limits. Tapping the excess policies in these situations requires counsel to focus on the language of the policies and involves resolving a myriad of legal issues.
Listen as our authoritative panel of insurance attorneys examines the latest developments in liability allocation, the application of vertical and horizontal exhaustion of policy limits, allocation among multiple lines of insurance, and best practices to advocate and resolve priority of coverage disputes involving allocation of liability and exhaustion of policies.
Outline
- Allocation of indemnity among multiple policies; all sums vs. pro-rata allocation
- Allocation among multiple lines of insurance
- Strategies to negotiate effective allocation methodology
- Horizontal vs. vertical exhaustion of policy limits
- Set-off and contribution in settlement
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- Can the limits of triggered policies be stacked in a continuous loss?
- What steps can policyholders and insurers take to recover damages and defend coverage under policies when facing continuous damage claims?
- What are the practice considerations when one claim impacts D&O, E&O, and CGL policies?
- How can counsel resolve issues that arise between the excess carrier and primary carrier when the primary carrier settles for less than the policy limits?
- What are the different rules for tapping excess insurance for continuous injury claims, and how should counsel best reconcile these rules?
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