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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, February 4, 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 discuss the purpose and application of MCS-90 endorsements and the four primary approaches courts take to determine when the MCS-90 endorsement applies. The panel will also examine how and why the endorsement provides settlement leverage for plaintiffs.

Faculty

Rick Gene Boepple
Attorney
Akerman LLP

Mr. Boepple is a litigation associate in Akerman’s Houston office, with a civil litigation practice focusing on insurance coverage matters and disputes. He routinely represents and advises insurance companies on various types of insurance coverage matters, including those involving directors and officers, professional liability, commercial general liability, commercial property, errors and omissions, commercial auto, and fidelity insurance policies. Mr. boepple has experience with a wide variety of insurance matters, including successfully conducting pre-suit mediations and settlement negotiations, conducting and handling Examinations Under Oath, analyzing purported Stowers demands, analyzing and litigating duty to defend and duty to indemnify disputes, and advising and defending insurance companies in extra-contractual/bad faith liability disputes.

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Frank C. Botta
Partner and Chair of the Litigation and Transportation Practice Groups
The Lynch Law Group, LLC

Mr. Botta is a Partner and Chair of the Litigation and Transportation Practice Groups at The Lynch Law Group. He also is a member of the Labor and Employment and Alternative Dispute Resolution Groups. Mr. Botta is an active member of the Transportation Lawyers Association, where he served as the organization’s President (2017 – 2018) and currently serves on the Executive Committee. He is also actively involved in the Canadian Transportation Lawyers Association and has served on the Board of Directors. Mr. Botta is also a member of the Conference of Freight Counsel, an association of attorneys representing motor, rail, ocean and air freight carriers, borkers and forwarders in cargo claim and freight charge disputes.

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Ashton T. Kirsch
Shareholder
Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, SC

Mr. Kirsch is an insurance litigation attorney and shareholder with the law firm of Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. He has been with MWL’s Hartford office since 2015, concentrating his practice on litigation of subrogation cases involving large loss casualty, commercial auto, transportation and cargo, and workers’ compensation. Mr. Kirsch has built and grown the MWL commercial auto and cargo/transportation group into the thriving sector of our firm’s subrogation practice.

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Description

Federal motor carriers must prove they have the financial ability to cover damage to the public, and one avenue is the MCS-90 endorsement added to the trucking liability policy. The MCS-90 is not a true insurance policy, because if the insurance company pays a claim, it can theoretically recoup its losses against the policyholder through subrogation. Failure to understand the practical ramifications of this arrangement can be costly.

There are at least three and arguable four different approaches to determining when the MCS-90 endorsement applies, plus other approaches of state supreme courts. Insurers that issued policies with the MCS-90 endorsements face more uncertainty than ever about if and when their financial responsibility is triggered depending on the location of a motor vehicle collision.

The rules for when coverage exists and when insurers should invoke coverage defenses are all different under the MCS-90. Experienced plaintiffs' counsel can leverage missteps of the uninformed to increase claim value and put insurers on the road to bad faith allegations and even punitive damages.

Listen as our premiere panel discusses what counsel representing trucking companies or plaintiffs need to know about when the MCS-90 is applicable, and thus, when financial obligations must be met or may be accessed.

Outline

  1. Brief review of MCS-90 history
  2. What is covered and how it applies
    1. Statutory requirements for minimum limits of insurance
    2. Limitations on the applicability of the endorsement
    3. Different approaches to application
  3. Defending MCS-90 claims
    1. Strategic considerations when coverage defenses exist
  4. Pursuing MCS-90
    1. Personal injury
    2. Subrogation
  5. Reimbursement under MCS-90
  6. Interesting caselaw and recent developments
    1. What is interstate commerce?
    2. What is needed to seek reimbursement?

Benefits

The panel will review these issues:

  • Should the MCS-90 be considered a surety bond?
  • How does cancellation impact the MCS-90 endorsement appended to a commercial auto policy?
  • Does the MCS-90 trump noncooperation and notice clauses?
  • Do the rules about time-limited demands apply to MCS-90 endorsements?