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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Intermediate

  • work Practice Area

    Insurance

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, September 24, 2024

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$297.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will offer policyholder advocates better ways to think about and frame insurance coverage disputes for improved outcomes. The panel will suggest arguments, techniques, and practices that help counsel find more and better support for their policy language interpretations--sometimes in unusual places--when an insurer challenges or denies coverage.

Faculty

Natalie DuBose
Partner
Haynes & Boone LLP

Ms. DuBose is an insurance-recovery professional who has successfully represented a number of businesses—large and small—under all types of commercial insurance policies, including directors and officers, commercial general liability, property, errors and omissions, builder’s risk, fidelity, and cyber. She has a decade of experience helping businesses navigate complex insurance disputes. Ms. DuBose has developed a business-oriented approach to insurance recovery and a unique understanding of her clients’ goals, and actively consults with clients on cost-effective solutions to manage risk and maximize insurance recovery. She has been recognized in the Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Law every year since 2019, and has been recognized as a Rising Star in Insurance by Texas Super Lawyers. Ms. DuBose is the Chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s Tort and Insurance Practice Section, where she has served as a board member since 2016. She has chaired many ABA insurance conferences, and is a regular speaker and writer on insurance topics, including for the Texas Insurance Law Journal and the Texas Bar Advanced Insurance Law seminar.

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Greg Van Houten
Partner
Haynes & Boone LLP

Mr. Van Houten is a high-stakes commercial litigator who focuses on representing corporate plaintiffs in insurance-related matters. He only represents policyholders--not insurance companies. In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Van Houten advises clients during insurance renewals on optimal insurance policy wording and during M&A transactions that involve complex insurance issues. He is the founder of the PolicyholderPlaybook--a bi-weekly blog highlighting the best techniques used by the best insurance policyholder advocates.

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Description

Insurance policies are complicated documents, and businesses may have multiple policies, including both primary and excess policies. Counsel seeking coverage will want to scrutinize the policies and the insurer's coverage position from many different angles. Carrying the insurer's argument all the way through to its logical or illogical conclusion may underscore why it fails.

Policyholder counsel will want to scour every available insurer-side writing that bears on coverage, not just the policy itself. Much can be gleaned from prior cases dealing with the same language, prior decisions by the judge on the case, the history of the policy language or exclusion, intra-insurer communications, letters, guidelines, and more.

The newest tool could be generative AI. One Eleventh Circuit judge has suggested generative AI might be a useful tool for ascertaining the ordinary meaning of certain words or phrases. Counsel will want to consider the pros and cons of this new technology and also whether the court might do so.

Listen as this panel of creative attorneys discusses strategies and techniques for making the best policyholder arguments and better ways of thinking about and framing insurance-related disputes.

Outline

  1. How to identify non-obvious policies with potential coverage
  2. Using the policy to bolster coverage arguments
  3. Using insurer-drafted materials to argue for coverage
  4. Rebutting insurer arguments against coverage

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • What overlooked or unusual documents from insurers are often helpful in making the case for coverage, and can a policyholder get them when they need them?
  • What are the best methods for distinguishing insurer case law?
  • Should AI in any form be used to determine the meanings of words or phrases?