Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026 — A.W.G. Dewar Inc. and affiliate Intact Insurance Group USA LLC have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a former employee accessed a customer database five days after her termination and obtained confidential information about schools insured by the specialty carrier.

The complaint, filed September 17, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleges that the former account executive subsequently joined a competitor and solicited Dewar customers using proprietary information. The plaintiffs seek damages, restrictions on the use of their customer data, and an order preserving electronic evidence.

The dispute centers on access to Constant Contact, a password-protected marketing platform containing information about Dewar's current and prospective customers. According to the complaint, the company disabled the employee's internal login credentials and computer access when it terminated her employment on April 17, 2026, but failed to revoke her access to the marketing platform.

The former employee allegedly logged into Constant Contact on April 22 and exported customer and prospect information, including institutional identities, individual contact names, job titles and email addresses.

Dewar alleges that the employee could not provide a logical explanation for accessing the system after her termination.

Customer information in a concentrated insurance market

Dewar specializes in tuition refund insurance, which protects schools against covered tuition losses when students withdraw, are dismissed or experience other covered interruptions to enrollment.

The company estimates that approximately 30,000 private schools operate in the United States, but only about 1,200 purchase tuition refund coverage. Dewar says it insures approximately 1,100 of those institutions and has maintained customer relationships averaging 33 years.

According to the complaint, the former account executive joined Dewar in July 2022 and managed approximately 119 school accounts. Her responsibilities gave her access to customer identities, renewal schedules, pricing, decision-maker contacts and business strategies.

She also received access to the company's Constant Contact database while her supervisor was on leave. The complaint states that only three employees, all more senior than the former account executive, normally had access to that system.

Dewar contends that its customer information has substantial commercial value because it identifies schools that purchase a specialized insurance product and the individuals responsible for purchasing decisions.

The company estimates that its allegedly stolen trade secrets are worth well over $1 million.

Alleged solicitation of customers

Following her departure from Dewar, the former employee began working for Vertical Insure Inc. as School Partnerships & Growth Lead, according to the complaint.

Vertical is described in the filing as a relatively recent entrant to the tuition refund insurance market, founded around 2022.

Dewar alleges that the former employee has solicited multiple existing customers since joining Vertical and used information she could not otherwise have obtained without access to Dewar's proprietary database.

The plaintiffs claim that the alleged conduct has disclosed confidential information, diverted business opportunities and disrupted longstanding customer relationships.

The allegations have not been established in court. The complaint does not establish that Vertical itself improperly accessed Dewar's systems or participated in the alleged data extraction.

Trade secret and computer access claims

The lawsuit brings five claims against the former employee, including alleged violations of the federal Defend Trade Secrets Act, Massachusetts trade secret law and federal computer fraud law.

The plaintiffs also allege common-law wrongdoing involving the confidential information and intentional interference with existing and prospective business relationships.

In addition to monetary damages, Dewar and Intact seek a court order preventing the former employee from contacting schools identified in Dewar's database or sharing the information with Vertical.

They also request preservation of electronic evidence and the return of devices containing Dewar's information.

The case has direct implications for insurance companies that maintain customer information across multiple systems. Dewar alleges that it revoked the employee's internal access at termination but left her credentials active on a separate marketing platform.

For claims departments and insurance operations teams, the alleged sequence illustrates why access reviews must account for third-party applications as well as internal systems. Where an access dispute leads to litigation, login records, export histories and preserved electronic evidence can help establish what information was accessed and when.

No court has made findings on the merits of the allegations.