Thursday, September 23rd, 2021 — When litigating insurance coverage issues, insurers are at risk of winning a battle, but losing a war.
That is, an insurer can prevail in a seemingly insular coverage dispute, but the outcome of that litigation can have far-reaching, unintended consequences for a carrier’s portfolio and the insurance industry at large.
Potential global impacts are readily apparent when litigating new-to-market policy forms or emerging coverage issues such as COVID-19 and climate change.
However, the concerns can be far less obvious, but equally as potent, when litigating a mundane coverage dispute.
Regardless of a coverage dispute’s newsworthiness, counsel and claims professionals must be sensitive to how the position raised in a given lawsuit can affect far more than that individual litigation.