Articles Posted in Rights to Coverage

Published on:

by

Construction projects—especially those of any complexity—often experience unexpected delays, resulting in loss of use to the owner. Owners sometimes insure against this risk by getting “Soft Cost” iStock-485271996-clock-and-crane-300x300coverage, which covers certain cost increases resulting from project delay (think higher finance costs). Typically, though, when a construction project experiences an unanticipated delay, everyone—the owner, the builder, the subcontractors and suppliers—is interested in getting the project back on schedule. So owners sometime also get “Expense to Reduce the Amount of Loss” (ERAL) coverage, which covers the cost of accelerating the project to get it back on schedule (think higher costs for additional construction crews and overtime). But if you have both “Soft Cost” and ERAL coverage, do they cancel each other out?

Continue Reading ›

Published on:

by

The first thing your insurance company must do after receiving notice of a loss is investigate your claim and make a coverage determination. The insurer will evaluate the strength of your claim, whether to pay it and what amount to pay. Even if the insurer thinks your claim is potentially covered, it may take the position that your claim is not covered or slow down its claim adjustment process to delay a payout in an effort to leverage a settlement for less than full value. If you sue to challenge your insurer’s coverage denial, a critical step to protect your rights and get the full coverage owed is to gain discovery of the insurer’s internal claims documents.

iStock-495611952-lock-files-300x200

Continue Reading ›

Published on:

by

In what resembles a kabuki dance of sorts, insurers often fire off reservation of rights letters as an automatic response to any and all claims-related correspondence. A policyholder sends notice of circumstances that could give rise to a claim? Reservation of rights. A policyholder requests defense coverage? Reservation of rights.Dance-steps A policyholder requests consent to settle with the underlying claimant? Reservation of rights.

Continue Reading ›

Published on:

by and

Certificates of insurance (a.k.a COIs) are used in contract relationships all the time. COIs give details of the insurance policies held by a contracting party as of a certain date.  They usually include information such as the policy number, the name of the insurance company, the type of insurance, the limits of liability, theMagnifying-contract name of the policyholder, and a list of any additional insureds.  While the information in COIs may be important for you to understand when you are entering into a contract, what may be even more important for you to understand are their limits. Continue Reading ›