Insurance Coverage Law: A Comprehensive Guide for Policyholders

68 questions on insurance coverage law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are punitive damages in bad faith cases unlimited?
• Can an insurer recover defense costs for claims that were never covered?
• Can an insurer refuse to settle because it believes the claim is not covered?
• Did New York adopt the notice-prejudice rule?
• Does the war exclusion apply to state-sponsored cyberattacks?
• Do unfair claims practices statutes create a private right of action?
• How did the insurance market respond to the NotPetya war exclusion rulings?
• How do corporate reorganizations break insurance coverage?
• How do courts count the number of occurrences?
• How does business interruption coverage actually work?
• How does California Civil Code Section 2860 limit the right to independent counsel?
• How does California's approach to the duty to defend differ from the eight corners rule?
• How does D&O insurance interact with corporate indemnification law?
• How does the "insured contract" exception rescue contractual liability coverage?
• How do "other insurance" clauses work when two policies cover the same loss?
• How is the duty to defend broader than the duty to indemnify?
• How many coverage requirements hide in the CGL insuring agreement?
• How should a policyholder read a reservation of rights letter?
• How should a policyholder structure a coverage declaratory judgment action?
• Is an insurer's claim file discoverable?
• Is defective construction work an "occurrence" under a CGL policy?
• Is insurance coverage law federal or state law?
• What are Miller-Shugart and Coblentz agreements?
• What are Sides A, B, and C of a D&O policy?
• What are the business-risk exclusions in a CGL policy?
• What are the five parts of every liability insurance policy?
• What are the most common notice traps for policyholders?
• What are the most negotiated exclusions in a D&O policy?
• What are the three coverages in a standard CGL policy?
• What are the trigger theories for long-tail claims?
• What did Gray v. Zurich establish about the duty to defend?
• What did RSUI v. Murdock decide about coverage for fraud?
• What does EPLI not cover?
• What do lawyers commonly get wrong about contra proferentem?
• What happens when an insurer wrongfully refuses to defend?
• What is a hammer clause?
• What is a reservation of rights, and why do insurers issue one?
• What is a retroactive date and why must it be policed?
• What is a Stowers demand?
• What is a tail or extended reporting period, and when is it essential?
• What is contra proferentem in insurance law?
• What is first-party insurance bad faith?
• What is notice of circumstances, and why is it underused?
• What is targeted tender?
• What is the difference between "all sums" and pro rata allocation?
• What is the difference between horizontal and vertical exhaustion?
• What is the difference between occurrence and claims-made policies?
• What is the duty to settle, and why is it the insurer's greatest exposure?
• What is the eight corners rule?
• What is the notice-prejudice rule?
• What is the professional services coverage gap?
• What is the reasonable expectations doctrine?
• What is the Restatement of the Law, Liability Insurance, and how should it be cited?
• What is the voluntary payments clause, and what is the pre-tender defense cost trap?
• What other interpretive canons decide insurance coverage cases?
• What should a policyholder do on the day a lawsuit arrives?
• What structural cautions apply to cyber insurance policies?
• When is a policyholder entitled to independent (Cumis) counsel?
• When should a policyholder rely on the reasonable expectations doctrine?
• Who bears the burden of proof on each part of a coverage dispute?
• Why are claims-made reporting deadlines enforced without a showing of prejudice?
• Why did most COVID-19 business interruption claims fail?
• Why do courts interpret insurance policies differently from ordinary contracts?
• Why does insurance bad faith sound in tort rather than contract?
• Why does the CGL definition of "property damage" matter so much?
• Why is additional insured status better than a contractual indemnity?
• Why is "all-risk" property insurance more valuable than named-peril coverage?
• Why is choice of law often the whole coverage case?