Time-Limited Demands for Policy Limits: Avoiding Bad Faith Claims When Evaluating and Responding on Limited Information

Mr. Bertschi focuses his practice on insurance coverage, professional liability defense and data breach response. He represents insurance companies in litigating coverage disputes, including the institution of declaratory judgment actions and actions to rescind insurance policies, the defense of breach of contract actions and actions in which the insured alleges bad faith or extra-contractual damages, and actions between insurance companies to resolve allocation and relative priority issues. He also advises insurance companies on all aspects of the claims-resolution process, including the provision of coverage opinions, advice on the allocation of indemnity payments, strategies to minimize the risk of bad faith suits and suits to collect consent judgments, and advice as monitoring counsel.

Ms. Hudgins represents corporate policyholders in high-value insurance disputes and complex claims, litigating in state and federal courts across the country, including U.S. territories. She is known for balancing litigation strategy with pre-suit resolutions. Ms. Hudgins is also an active thought leader, frequently presenting at industry conferences and authoring chapters and articles for business and insurance publications. She works on a wide variety of claims, including property, business interruption, commercial general liability (CGL), pollution legal liability (PLL), builder’s risk, D&O, E&O, professional liability, employment practices liability (EPLI), cyber, crime, fidelity, and other specialized insurance products. Ms. Hudgins also has experience in catastrophic injury claims, property damage disputes, C-suite subpoenas and investigations, art provenance issues, and trade credit claims.

Ms. Katz focuses her practice on representing policyholders in disputes with insurance companies. She is also chair of the firm's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. Ms. Katz assists corporate and individual policyholders (including private and public corporations, hospitals, and pharmaceutical and media companies) with coverage issues under varied insurance policies such as Property, General Liability, Directors & Officers, and Errors & Omissions policies. She handles various coverage issues including property damage, product liability, advertising injury, business interruption, and property valuation. Ms. Katz also counsels her clients in the non-litigation context including analyzing coverage after a loss has occurred or a claim has been made and assisting the policyholder in presenting the claim to the insurance company; responding to inquiries from the insurance company; and evaluating and responding to errors in the insurance company’s coverage position. She also drafts insurance provisions to commercial service agreements in anticipation of future events or activities. In addition to insurance coverage cases, Ms. Katz represents clients in government investigations and matters involving complex contract disputes, tort liability, and criminal law.