30 Apr, 2024 Georgia Legislature Overhauls Holt Demand Statute in Effort to Curb Failure to Settle Litigation By Ryan Burke Seslee Smith On April 22, 2024, Governor Kemp signed into law Senate Bill 83, overhauling Georgia’s statute governing pre-suit time-limited demands...
18 Apr, 2024 Illinois Court Holds That Trafficking Allegations—Including Allegations of Negligence—Are Not “Occurrences” or Are Excluded as Intentional Acts By Seslee Smith Ryan Burke Nathan Miles In Country Mutual Ins. Co. v. Gary Gang Xu et al., 2024 IL App 2202287 (2024), the court considered whether allegations concerning sex...
28 Mar, 2024 The Importance of Standards of Review: A Tornado Is Not a “Windstorm” By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke A recent Texas case shows the importance of providing clear and unambiguous policy language. In Mankoff v. PURE, the insureds negated an...
25 Mar, 2024 Excess Insurer’s Policy Conditions Shield It from a Potential $10 Million Coverage Liability By Nathan Miles Excess insurers facing claims should heavily scrutinize their policies for conditions that may be unsatisfactory —even if seemingly...
26 Feb, 2024 Foregoing Discovery Leads to Adverse Judgment Against Insurer By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke Although discovery is costly, skipping it altogether can be far costlier. Indeed, in a recent case in the Second Circuit, an insurer’s...
22 Feb, 2024 Georgia Senate Passes Bill That Would End Direct Action Suits Against Truck Insurers By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke Senate Bill 426 would bar a plaintiff injured by a motor carrier from suing the motor carrier’s insurer directly unless (1) the plaintiff...
15 Feb, 2024 Georgia State Representative Introduces Bill to Ban Insurers From Solely Relying on AI for Coverage Decisions By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke A Georgia State Representative recently introduced legislation prohibiting an insurer from relying solely on artificial intelligence to...
15 Feb, 2024 Georgia Court of Appeals Invalidates Another Insurer’s Acceptance of a Holt Demand Based on Language in Settlement Check By Ryan Burke Seslee Smith Nathan Miles Insurers attempting to accept a time-limited demand (often called a “Holt” demand in Georgia) must adhere to every term and condition of...
18 Jan, 2024 Insurers Ordered to Pay Policy Limits Twice for a Single Policy Term By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke In a cautionary tale for insurers everywhere, a California court recently ordered two excess carriers to pay their policy limits twice...
17 Nov, 2023 Insurers Cannot Unilaterally Reserve the Right to Recoup Defense Costs in a Reservation of Rights Letter, Eleventh Circuit Holds By Ryan Burke Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Liability insurers defending under a reservation of rights (ROR) often include in their RORs that the insurer may recoup defense costs...
03 Nov, 2023 "Coverage Defenses" Cannot Be Waived Whereas "Policy Defenses" Can Be, Eleventh Circuit Holds By Nathan Miles Seslee Smith Ryan Burke An insurer cannot waive a “coverage defense” based on a policy exclusion, even where the insurer failed to raise that defense in its...
25 Oct, 2023 How to Protect Trade Secrets Under the Georgia Open Records Act By Eric Larson One question our clients sometimes ask when doing business with governmental entities in Georgia is how to protect their trade secrets...