Insurance Law Commons^™

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Attorney–Client Privilege In Bad Faith Insurance Claims: The Cedell Presumption And A Necessary National Resolution, Klien Hilliard

Seattle University Law Review

Attorney–client privilege is one of the most important aspects of our legal system. It is one of the oldest privileges in American law and is codified both at the national and state level. Applying to both individual persons and corporations, this expanded privilege covers a wide breadth of clients. However, this broad privilege can sometimes become blurred in relationships between the corporation and the individuals it serves. Specifically, insurance companies and those they cover have complex relationships, as the insurer possesses a quasi-fiduciary relationship in relation to the insured. This type of relationship requires that the insurer act in good …

Shook: Litigation, Regulation, And Legislation Strategies To Better Protect Oklahoma’S Earthquake Insurance Policyholders, Nick A. Marr

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Executive Power And The Aca, Nicholas Bagley

Book Chapters

As with any law of its complexity and ambition, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) vests in the sitting president broad implementation discretion. The law is not a blank check: in many ways both large and small, the ACA shapes and constrains the exercise of executive power. But Congress has neither the institutional resources nor the attention span to micromanage the rollout of a massive health program. It has no choice but to delegate.

Naturally, both President Obama and President Trump have drawn on their authority to tailor the ACA to their policy preferences. Neither president, however, has been able to …

The Specific Consumer Expectations Test For Product Defects, Clayton J. Masterman, W. Kip Viscusi

Indiana Law Journal

In this Article, we propose that courts adopt an amended version of the consumer expectations test that we call the “specific consumer expectations test.” The specific consumer expectations test would apply to any product or product component for which consumers have clear, articulable ex ante expectations about the function of the product. Under the specific consumer expectations test, a defendant is liable if consumers expected such a product to reduce a particular risk, and the product in fact increased that risk. Similarly, if a product was intended to convey a particular benefit, but in fact harmed consumers along the same …

Christy’S Auto Rentals, Inc. V. Massachusetts Homeland Insurance Co., 204 A.3d 1071 (R.I. 2019), Tatiana Gomez

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Phishing For Computer Fraud Insurance Coverage, Stephen Swanson

Georgia State University Law Review

Accordingly, the following note discusses the disparity between the federal circuit courts regarding the proper insurance coverage for phishing-type attacks. Part I examines the cyber threats companies face when handling sensitive transactions and customer data, as well as the coverage gap between traditional crime insurance policies and the targeted cyber insurance policies that help prevent, detect, and ultimately mitigate the damages resulting from a cybersecurity breach. Part II analyzes the current circuit split and the various contract interpretation strategies, policy considerations, and tests employed in reaching a coverage decision. Part III proposes a resolution to the overarching circuit split that …

Insurance Law, J. Price Collins, Janet Tolbert, Ashley Gilmore

SMU Annual Texas Survey

No abstract provided.

Forum Shopping Covid-19 Business Interruption Insurance Claims, Chris French

Faculty Scholarship

Insurance disputes are typically governed by state law, and state insurance laws vary considerably, with some states being favorable to policyholders and others being unfavorable. With forum shopping, a plaintiff often has many choices regarding where it can bring a lawsuit, including multiple states in which to bring the case and whether to bring the case in federal or state court. Of the over 1000 COVID-19 business interruption insurance lawsuits filed thus far, more than 700 of them have been filed in, or removed to, federal court, with more than 250 of the cases filed as class actions. Many of …

Insurance, Bradley S. Wolff, Maren R. Cave, Thomas D. Martin

Mercer Law Review

During this survey period, the courts in Georgia seemed to take a respite from the usual litany of automobile and uninsured motorist (UM) cases, the summaries of which typically populate this annual update. Instead, the courts seemed to focus more on liability insurance issues, rendering many decisions on well-known principles of law and a few important decisions concerning offers of settlement, counteroffers, notice, and the use of intervention in coverage disputes. Particularly noteworthy were two cases involving offers of settlement, one where an offer was deemed inadequate as a time-limited demand and another where acceptance of an offer was deemed …

Summit Insurance Co. V. Stricklett, 199 A.3d 523 (R.I. 2019), Amanda Larocca

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bacon Construction Co. V. Arbella Protection Insurance Co., 208 A.3d 595 (R.I. 2019), Lucas A. Sylvia

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rhode Island American Federation Of Teachers/Retired Local 8037 V. Johnston School Committee, 212 A.3d 156 (R.I. 2019), Rachel Ricci

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

America On Fire: Climate Change, Wildfires & Insuring Natural Catastrophes, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

America is on fire. The damage, destruction, and loss of life caused by wildfires have exploded over the past few decades. Nine of the ten worst fire seasons have occurred in the past fifteen years, with 2017 and 2018 being the worst years ever. Despite spending approximately $3.7 billion annually on fire suppression, more than 35,000 structures were lost to wildfires in 2017 and 2018, approximately $32 billion in property losses occurred, and more than 100 people were killed. More than forty million homes worth approximately $187 billion in the U.S. are currently at a high risk of destruction due …

Remutualization, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

Policymakers need to rediscover the organizational form of business entity as a tool of financial regulation. Recent and classic scholarship has produced evidence that financial institutions organized as alternative entity forms – including investment bank partnerships and banks and insurance companies organized as mutual or cooperatives – tend to take less risk, exploit customers/consumer less, or commit less misconduct compared to counterparts organized as investor-owned corporations. This article builds off the work of Hill and Painter on investment banks organized as partnerships, Hansmann on the history and economics of banks and insurance companies organized as mutuals and cooperatives, and other …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Cyber Insurance Today: Saving It Before It Needs Saving, Angela Nieves

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Cyber insurance, which covers a company’s losses and costs stemming from a cyberattack, represents a nearly $5 billion global market. But have stakeholders shaped a sustainable model? This article analyzes contrasting claims about the viability of cyber insurance. It proposes measures to ensure the survival of the cyber insurance market, which should be immediately addressed given the current state of the world and the fact that even pre-COVID-19, businesses worldwide stood to lose over $5.2 trillion over the next five years due to cybercrimes. Unless action is taken to mitigate the fallout from cyber events, the cyber insurance market will …

Trust, Contribution And Equitable Accounting: Analysing Imbalances In Contribution Towards Mortgage Payments, Sing Yong Lim, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A frequently litigated issue across the Commonwealth is determining the beneficial interest of property in light of a breakdown of close relationships such as domestic relationships or family members or friends who may have jointly bought property together. These cases are frequently complicated by the fact that there may be imbalances in contributions of the mortgage repayments by one party. How are parties’ beneficial entitlement determined using legal or equitable doctrines? Unfortunately, the current case law has not been entirely clear and judges have used a myriad of doctrines in relation to such a fact pattern which has resulted in …

Deals, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Over a quarter of a century ago, Ron Gilson, Dan Raff, and I developed a new course, The Economics of Complex Transactions, which came to be known as Deals. The motivation for the course was our perception of a great imbalance in the law school curriculum, which was weighted heavily toward litigation, particularly appellate litigation. While a substantial number of our graduates were becoming transactional lawyers, there was hardly anything available to prepare them for that practice. Our concept was that lawyers were transaction engineers and, when designing contracts, they faced a generic set of problems. Furthermore, there were techniques …

Sb 18 - Direct Primary Care, Valentin H. Dubuis, Juliana Mesa

Georgia State University Law Review

This legislation allows physicians to offer specified care for a specific time pursuant to a fixed fee. The physician cannot require more than one year’s payment upfront, and the agreement has to be terminable by either party with thirty days’ notice. Physicians do not have to provide care if the fee has not been paid or the patient has committed fraud, failed to adhere to treatment, or is in physical danger.