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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, January 28, 2025

  • 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 offer insurer and policyholder counsel a detailed analysis of the issues related to appealing insurance coverage decisions, starting with the decision to appeal and offering practical tips on briefing and oral argument. The program will offer useful practice pointers on the difference between trial and appellate briefing and oral presentations, how to simplify facts and policy terms, what appellate judges think about, selecting the best authority, working with amici, certification, interlocutory appeal, and more.

Faculty

Max H. Stern
Partner
Duane Morris LLP.

Mr. Stern is the head of the firm’s Insurance Litigation Division.  As a trial and appellate lawyer, he has extensive experience with respect to coverage, bad faith, reinsurance and regulatory disputes, spanning multiple lines, including specialty, professional, excess and general liability.   His work representing insurers has earned him a spot on numerous leading lawyers lists, including Chambers USA (both the Nationwide and California lists), Legal500, and Martindale-Hubbell. 

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Elizabeth L. Taylor
Attorney
Reed Smith

Ms. Taylor focuses her practice on Insurance Recovery. She has experience representing and advising corporate policyholders at various stages including risk management counseling, claims handling, and insurance coverage litigation. Ms. Taylor has worked on coverage disputes under various types of insurance policies including commercial general liability, business income, directors and officers liability, fiduciary liability, and employment practices liability. She has also collaborated with the firm’s financial industry group and global regulatory enforcement group defending financial institutions in litigation and representing corporate clients in government investigations.

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Description

For both insurers and policyholders, insurance coverage appeals raise substantive, procedural, and strategic concerns not encountered in other types of appeals. Deciding whether to appeal emerging or precedent-setting issues that can have far-ranging effects requires a well-thought-out strategy. Sometimes counsel may need to seek certification to state court and in some cases it may be appropriate to seek interlocutory appeal.

Lawyers appealing coverage issues need to thoroughly understand policy provisions and industry standards on substantive issues like the duty to defend or to pay defense costs, burdens of proof, bad faith, and indemnification, and on procedural issues such as jurisdiction, arbitration, choice of law, and forum selection clauses.

The biggest mistake counsel can make whether briefing or arguing the appeal is to overlook the difference between how trial and appellate courts approach the case. Moreover, few judges are insurance coverage experts, making simplicity and clarity critical.

Listen as this panel of insurance appeals experts offers practical guidance on all stages of coverage appeals.

Outline

  1. Deciding whether to appeal
    1. Insurer and policyholder strategies
    2. Multi-insurer cases
    3. Understanding difference between how appellate and trial courts view issues
  2. Practical briefing tips
    1. Simplifying complex issues
    2. Simplifying the policy
    3. Role of typography and visual formatting
      1. Graphs and diagrams
      2. Authority and analysis
  3. Standards of review
    1. Summary judgment and questions of law
    2. Questions of fact
      1. Bench trials
      2. Jury trials
  4. How appellate courts view the same issues differently from trial courts
  5. Selecting the right precedent
  6. Dealing with amici
  7. Seeking certification
  8. Interlocutory appeals

Benefits

The panel will explore these and other key issues:

  • How should non-controlling but on-point case law be best used?
  • What factors should be considered when deciding to appeal emerging issues?
  • How can counsel explain policies without putting the judges to sleep?