Litigating Updated Force Majeure Provisions and Impossibility Issues: New Developments and Strategies

Case law has emerged that sharpens and expands our understanding of force majeure clauses and their related provisions and doctrines. Since 2020 and in the wake of unpredictability, instability, and disruptions with respect to everything from pathogens, changing supply-chains and now tariffs, many parties have looked to these clauses and doctrines for relief from their supply obligations. Parties are revisiting the scope and substance of once boiler-plate force majeure clauses in their contracts and are viewing such clauses as a potential risk-transfer tool with an eye toward expanding their reach beyond acts of God and to more human and economic-based issues.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses what litigating force majeure defenses involves, the ramifications of settlement, the nuts and bolts of statutes of limitations, discovery issues, notice requirements, deadlines that have been or may be triggered, and damages. The panel will also review how well each argument has been received.