Law Commons^™

Regulation Not Prohibition: The Comparative Case Against The Insurable Interest Doctrine, Sharo Michael Atmeh

Sharo M Atmeh

American law requires an insurable interest—a pecuniary or affective stake in the subject of an insurance policy—as a predi-cate to properly obtaining insurance. In theory, the rule prevents both wagering on individual lives and moral hazard. In practice, the doctrine is avoided by complex insurance transaction structuring to effectuate both origination and transfers of insurance by individuals without an insurable interest. This paper argues that it is time to ab-andon the insurable interest doctrine. As both the English and Aus-tralian experiences indicate, elimination of the insurable interest doctrine will have little detrimental pecuniary effect on the insurance industry, while freeing …

Can (And Should) An Insurance Defense Attorney Be Held Liable For Insurance Bad Faith?, Chad G. Marzen

Chad G. Marzen

Insurance defense lawyers are faced with many practical and ethical challenges in the contemporary practice of law. Outside of the practical and ethical challenges looms a question concerning insurance bad faith – can (and should) an insurance defense attorney and/or insurance defense law firm ever be held liable for insurance bad faith?

In this article, I state that with the ever-increasing expanse of bad faith liability today, insurance defense attorneys and law firms are potentially next to be encompassed in the liability circle. Today, as a general rule, insurance defense attorneys and law firms are not directly liable to an …