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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, July 15, 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 instruct insurance litigators on how to plead allegations that fall within a policy's coverage grant but outside the policy's exclusions when alleging the underlying claims that trigger coverage and the duty to defend. The program will identify mistakes that can get complaints dismissed although the underlying facts of the claim are within coverage. The panel will also speak to the issue of "inartful" pleading that attempts to trigger the duty to defend an excluded claim.


Faculty

Evan Schwartz
Founder and CEO
Schwartz, Conroy & Hack, PC

Mr. Schwartz is a highly skilled litigator with more than 30 years of experience litigating insurance recovery claims and litigation, as well as complex federal and state litigation. He has expertly managed claims and lawsuits against insurance companies in courts nationwide, making insurance companies uphold their commitments to policyholders. Mr. Schwartz has a stellar reputation with clients and colleagues as part of his distinguished career handling complex insurance recovery litigation matters in both federal and state courts.

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Description

Coverage turns almost entirely on how the underlying actions are pleaded. Thus, insurance litigators want to discover available insurance policies and then draft pleadings--whether plaintiff or defense--that trigger the available coverage and the duty to defend.

Problems arise because the facts crucial to establishing coverage often have no bearing on liability. Thus, attorneys can plead too little, leaving out facts demonstrating coverage and giving the insurer ample ground to argue it has no duty to defend the policyholder.

Attorneys can also plead too much and end up pleading "outside of coverage." The complaint may contain causes of action that are covered, but the facts alleged only support a non-covered or excluded claim. Although pleading "outside of coverage" is not always fatal to the duty to defend or to coverage, it can create a host of unnecessary complications and dampen insurer involvement.

Listen as this experienced panel instructs insurance litigators how to plead covered claims and how to avoid mistakes that can cause a complaint to be dismissed even when the underlying facts of the claim are within coverage.

Outline

I. Benefits of triggering duty to defend

II. Strategies for identifying available policies

III. Identifying and pleading facts needed to trigger coverage

IV. Avoiding triggering exclusions

V. Remedies for "under" and "over" pleading

VI. "Inartful" pleading and uncovered claims


Benefits

The panel will review these and other critical issues:

  • Are there ever situations where a policyholder would want to avoid coverage?
  • Are there ever situations where the plaintiff would want to avoid coverage?
  • What happens if the complaint fails to allege undisputed facts that, had they been alleged, would have triggered the insurer's duty to defend?
  • If an extrinsic fact is relevant to determining coverage, but not liability, can it be considered by an insurer when deciding the duty to defend?