Jul 26, 2024 Beware: More ERC Denial Letters in the Pipeline By Barclay Taylor Employee Retention Credits (ERCs) are critical for many ongoing businesses. Many businesses are still waiting on the IRS to pay out the...
Apr 30, 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...
Apr 18, 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...
Mar 28, 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...
Mar 25, 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...
Mar 13, 2024 ERC Voluntary Disclosure Program Deadline is Approaching By Barclay Taylor William Stone III OVERVIEW Thousands of businesses struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic filed employee retention credit (ERC) claims in...
Feb 22, 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...
Feb 15, 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...
Feb 15, 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...
Jan 18, 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...
Dec 18, 2023 First Party Bad Faith Claim Fails as a Matter of Law Where Insurer Denies Claim Based on Independent Expert’s Report By Nathan Miles Ryan Burke Seslee Smith To avoid a bad faith claim, an insurer investigating a first party claim in Georgia should retain an independent expert to evaluate the...
Dec 07, 2023 Employee Retention Credit Audits Heating Up By Barclay Taylor William Stone III After months of talk, the IRS now appears to be taking action on Employee Retention Credit (ERC) audits. The IRS is about to send the...
Nov 21, 2023 ERC Claims Can Still be Submitted During the Moratorium By Barclay Taylor The Employee Retention Credit ("ERC") was a critical lifeline for many businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. After the IRS's September...
Nov 17, 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...
Nov 13, 2023 Georgia District Court Sets Low Bar For Pleading a TVPRA Claim By Ryan Burke Nathan Miles Seslee Smith A plaintiff need only allege that a hotel (a) rented a room to traffickers and (b) knew or had reason to know the plaintiff was being...
Nov 09, 2023 Georgia Court Of Appeals Reverses Denial Of Class Certification By Bob Alpert Jeff Douglass Doug Hance The Georgia Court of Appeals recently reversed a trial court’s denial of class certification in Doe v. Vest Monroe, LLC, 368 Ga. App. 572...