Reformation of Insurance Policies: Expanding or Reducing Coverage, Grounds for Relief, Defenses, Standards of Proof

Course Details
- smart_display Format
On-Demand
- signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level
- work Practice Area
Insurance
- event Date
Tuesday, March 14, 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 webinar will discuss the equitable remedy of reformation in the context of insurance coverage litigation. The panel will review the factual situations that give rise to demands for reformation, the grounds for reformation, when and how it is raised, factors considered, and how the remedy differs from rescission and broker negligence or malpractice.
Faculty

Ms. Raschke has spent her legal career representing commercial insurance clients in complex coverage disputes. She partners with her clients, developing close relationships with them, and enabling the collaboration that best serves their unique needs. Depending on the case or client, the approach could range from pre-litigation counseling, to alternative dispute resolution, through discovery, summary judgment briefing, and trial. Ms. Raschke has significant experience representing commercial insurers in sophisticated first-party property coverage matters and other complex coverage disputes involving directors and officers liability insurance, errors and omissions liability insurance, professional liability insurance, comprehensive general liability insurance, financial institution bonds, and bad faith litigation. She regularly speaks and authors articles regarding the commercial insurance industry and she is a past chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section's Property Insurance Law Committee.

Ms. Gilmore, Chair of the firm’s National Insurance Recovery Practice, is an accomplished litigator with an expertise in structured finance, securities and insurance recovery litigation. She has represented policyholders against nearly every major insurer and in a wide range of coverage matters, including coverage for both first-party and third-party losses and liabilities. Ms. Gilmore has recovered well over $2 billion in verdicts, judgments and settlements. She also represents plaintiffs in her structured finance and securities practice and has appeared against nearly every major financial institution, including in over 20 pending and resolved cases involving mortgage-backed securities.

Ms. Couture is an associate in Quinn Emanuel’s Austin office. She joined the firm in 2021 after graduating from the University of Texas School of Law as a member of the Chancellor Society. While in law school Ms. Couture worked on the Supreme Court clinic and was a Teaching Quizmaster.
Description
Reformation can be a powerful remedy for a policyholder or insurer who believes the policy at issue with respect to a claim does not accurately reflect the scope of coverage negotiated and agreed in the drafting and issuing of an insurance policy. Reformation will not be granted, however, to relieve a party that believes it received a bad deal. There must be evidence that the policy does not reflect the agreed terms.
If successful, reformation has the potential to transform a policy with language that clearly precludes coverage into a policy that provides coverage, or vice versa.
Listen as this panel of insurer and policyholder counsel discusses the factual situations that give rise to demands for reformation, the grounds for reformation, when and how it is raised, factors considered, and how the remedy differs from rescission and broker negligence or malpractice.
Outline
- Grounds for reformation
- Pleading reformation
- Evidentiary requirements
- Estoppel and waiver claims against the insurer
- Alternatives to reformation
- Consequences of reformation
- Reformation and bad faith
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What factors do courts consider when granting reformation as a remedy?
- Is reformation available if someone is missing as a named insured on the policy?
- Can the parties voluntarily reform a policy?
- What happens if reforming a policy changes the risk the insurer undertook?
- Can an insurer be liable for bad faith if a policy is reformed and coverage provided?
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