Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith

OVERVIEW

The Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith group is experienced in complex and emerging coverage issues through decades of work in this area, establishing a national reputation as a “go-to” firm in the industry. We have market-leading professionals with real-world experience that enables us to understand the business and legal challenges our clients face in this highly regulated arena. We have a comprehensive knowledge of coverage nuances—as well as the “nuts and bolts” of policy interpretation—to secure the most favorable outcomes.

We understand the broader impact of individual cases and counsel clients on coverage questions. We partner with claim professionals in investigating and handling sensitive claims and represent carriers in prosecuting and defending coverage and bad faith actions in federal and state courts and through other forms of alternative dispute resolution. Among our clients are major property and casualty insurers, reinsurers, and regional insurance companies, for whom we do work on a national or regional basis.

We are at the forefront representing clients in complicated and cutting-edge coverage matters involving issues that continue to challenge insurers and which have been hotly contested by policyholders. We collaborate with lawyers from our varied practice groups to bring a wider understanding of issues affecting the insurance industry and holistically address client needs. Areas where advise clients include:

environmental, social and governance (ESG)
Per- and Polyfluorinated Substance (PFAS)
asbestos
advertising injury
antitrust
bad faith
construction defect
drugs and medical devices
environmental pollution and toxic tort
employment practices
ERISA
intellectual property
mortgage insurance
residual value leases
personal and product disparagement
professional liability
public entities
technology and trade secret misappropriation
transportation liability

We are not only dedicated to our clients, but to the insurance industry as a whole. Many of our lawyers have held leadership positions in various insurance-related associations, including the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC), DRI, Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) and Lawyers for Civil Justice. We share the skills we have honed through experience and leadership by regularly speaking and writing on topics of interest to the insurance industry. In 2007, we developed Coverage College®, the firm’s premier educational program for insurance industry professionals. Each year hundreds of professionals from across the country gather for a day of insurance focused programming taught by White and Williams lawyers.

Bad Faith and Extracontractual Liability

In high-stakes coverage litigation, policyholders increasingly assert claims of bad faith and extracontractual liability against their insurers. Our lawyers have years of experience defending insurance carriers against these allegations. Our understanding of the insurance industry and extensive trial skills have enabled us to successfully counsel clients to avoid bad faith claims in the first place or to take a matter to trial if those claims cannot be otherwise resolved. When punitive and bad faith damages are on the line, it is critical to have attorneys who understand your business and have the skill set necessary to focus discovery and aggressively litigate a matter to conclusion, if necessary.

We have an active bad faith and extracontractual practice that involves counseling, and litigating on behalf of, insurers around the country. Our experience in bad faith and extracontractual matters is extensive and diverse. We handle extracontractual disputes involving general liability, life, health and disability, business auto, property, liquor liability, construction, directors and officers, professional liability (including architect and engineers), municipal liability, and school errors and omissions. Our practice includes litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts, as well as extensive experience in mediation and other types of ADR.

Our experienced lawyers provide significant bad faith avoidance counseling at the claim level for over 40 insurance company clients. We regularly speak on punitive damages, bad faith and bad faith avoidance before industry and professional groups including FDCC, Coverage College, ABA, Tort Trial and Insurance Section, CLM, The Institutes, ACI, CPCU and client-requested seminars. We also hold a Board of Regents seat at the American College of Coverage and Extra-Contractual Counsel.

First-Party Property

The property interests of a business or individual are among their most valuable, and yet, those interests are constantly at risk from various hazards, including weather, accidents, and mischief. When such a loss occurs, policyholders turn quickly to their first-party property policy to respond. Our lawyers are called upon by our insurer clients to assume various roles in such first-party claims – from spearheading a claim investigation to defending the insurer’s coverage position in litigation and on appeal – and everything in between. At each step, our lawyers carefully examine the facts of the loss, the language of the policy, and the applicable law to work through the contested issues of coverage and the scope and value of the loss.

When our clients are sued for extra-contractual claims challenging their process and/or decision, we recognize that our client’s name, good standing, and reputation are on the line. Our lawyers are equally well adept at defending these often-frivolous claims and aggressively seek their dismissal through pre-trial motions.

Whatever our role, we work collaboratively with our clients and spare no effort to achieve a favorable result.

Reinsurance

With extensive trial and arbitration experience, the Reinsurance group balances aggressiveness and efficiency to achieve positive results for clients. We have a reputation for being exceptionally focused and analytical. While there may be similarities, no two reinsurance disputes are the same, and drawing from our years of experience and applying a strategic focus, we are able to uncover nuances in a case that allow us to achieve the best possible outcome for our clients.

We not only understand reinsurance, but also the underlying insurance claims and coverage issues. We represent both ceding companies and assumed reinsurers in helping to avoid disputes before they develop, as well as arbitrating or litigating disputes when the parties cannot otherwise amicably resolve them. By working with our clients before a dispute develops, and while the underlying claim is ongoing, we are able to anticipate possible solutions and develop a strategy which can often lead to the quick resolution of disputes, saving the client both time and significant transactional expense.

In the last 15 years, we have litigated or arbitrated more than 100 reinsurance cases to final conclusion – resulting in awards in the hundreds of millions of dollars to ceding company clients, and very substantial savings to reinsurer clients. Numerous additional cases have been favorably resolved by settlement during the same time period.

Our lawyers have been involved in ground-breaking disputes including those involving:

follow-the-fortunes
environmental allocation
workers’ compensation
numerous kinds of financial instruments
insurer and reinsurer insolvency
offsets
reinsurance for asbestos losses
actuarial issues in life reinsurance
pools
surety

We have negotiated market agreements with regard to major repetitive issues and have made substantial use of professional mediation in reinsurance disputes. We bring years of trial and arbitration experience to bear on clients’ concerns and are very knowledgeable about the leading industry arbitrators and experts.

Recognitions and Awards

Since 2015, White and Williams has been recognized by Chambers USA as a “Leading Law Firm” in Pennsylvania for achievements and client service in the area of insurance law. The firm is recognized for offering advice to insurers and reinsurers across a range of areas, including coverage, bad faith, and excess liability. The firm is also recognized for its adroit handling of complex alternative dispute resolution cases, with clients saying "they have very formidable folk" and "provide great value."

The insurance practice has also achieved national recognition from U.S. News and World Report as a "Best Law Firm," with a National Tier 1 ranking. Firms included in the “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from clients and peers. Achieving a tiered ranking signals a unique combination of quality law practice and breadth of legal experience.

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Representative Matters

Numerous significant jury and bench trials, including but not limited to, multiphase environmental coverage matters involving manufactured gas plants, other plant sites, waste disposal sites/landfills, as well as confirmation hearings in bankruptcy court
Successful appeals, including issues of first impression, such as adoption of pro rata allocation under both Massachusetts law and New York; limitation of allocation to portion of policy period “triggered”; no coverage for extension of policy period; dismissal of claims against excess insurers as a result of insured’s “selection” of primary insurers/pro rata allocation under Ohio law; dismissal of claim seeking unaggregated coverage for asbestos-related bodily injury claims
Representation of a group of property-casualty insurers who are signatories to the landmark “Wellington Agreement”

Limiting attempts by underlying claimants and/or policyholders to pursue direct claims against or get broad declaratory relief from insurers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
Successful arbitrations enforcing releases under settlement agreements