BarbriSFCourseDetails
  • videocam On-Demand Webinar
  • signal_cellular_alt Intermediate
  • card_travel Insurance
  • schedule 90 minutes

Pleading Into Coverage and the Duty to Defend: Strategies to Enhance Insurer Involvement

$297.00

This course is $0 with these passes:

CLE
ALL
  1. keyboard_arrow_leftBack
BarbriPdBannerMessage

About the Course

Introduction

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.


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.

Presented By

Evan Schwartz, Esq.
Founder, CEO, Managing Partner
Schwartz, Conroy & Hack, PC

As the Founder, CEO and Managing Partner of Schwartz, Conroy & Hack, PC, Evan Schwartz is a highly skilled litigator in the niche area of insurance recovery claims and litigation, as well as in complex federal and state litigation. For more than 25 years, Evan has and continues to manage claims and lawsuits against insurance companies in federal and state courts across the country, making insurance companies keep the promises they make to their policyholders. Evan started his legal career as a law clerk at the New York Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court. He previously represented insurance companies, defending them in claims and lawsuits nationwide, and has throughout his career set legal precedent in the field of insurance recovery law that continues to impact cases today. He has been inducted as a lifetime member of the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. The Forum acknowledges excellence in advocacy by lawyers throughout the United States and is limited to attorneys who obtained for their clients multi-million dollar verdicts, awards, and settlements. Evan has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Insurance Law at Touro Law Center and served as President of the Touro Alumni Association for five years. He frequently lectures to lawyers and other groups on topics of insurance claims and litigation and is a regular lecturer for Lawline, the nation’s largest online continuing legal education provider. Evan received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Boston University and his Juris Doctorate from Touro Law Center, cum laude, where he was Editor of the Touro Law Review. He is a member of multiple bar associations and legal associations related to the practice of insurance recovery law. He is admitted to practice in New York, multiple federal district courts, and federal appeals courts, and has been admitted in many federal and state courts across the nation, on a pro hac vice basis. His practice includes all aspects of claims consulting, litigation, and appeals in the areas of insurance recovery claims and litigation, and business & complex litigation. Evan and his two adult children live in New York City.

expand_circle_down Expand to View Full Bio expand_circle_up Collapse Bio
Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.


  • Live Online


    On Demand

Date + Time

  • event

    Tuesday, July 15, 2025

  • schedule

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

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


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?