General Liability
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July 31, 2025
Top Property Insurance Decisions So Far In 2025
A U.K. decision over coverage for Russian-seized aircraft and a Second Circuit ruling in favor of international insurers seeking to arbitrate hurricane damage claims are among some of the biggest decisions in the property insurance space so far in 2025.
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July 31, 2025
CGL Cases To Watch In The Second Half Of 2025
Federal and state courts continue to weigh litigation involving public nuisance, long-tail environmental and sexual abuse claims. Here, Law360 breaks down some of the blockbuster commercial general liability insurance cases to follow in the second half of the year.
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July 31, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
State Farm must pay over $54.6 million in vehicle valuation class actions, an AIG unit doesn't owe coverage for an herbicide damage dispute, Allianz must provide coverage for a hot air balloon company's passenger crash suits, and an RV park can proceed with a suit against its insurance broker. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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July 30, 2025
Davis Polk, King & Spalding Build $2.35B AccuLynx Sale
Data analytics and technology company Verisk, advised by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, on Wednesday announced plans to acquire software-as-a-service company AccuLynx, led by King & Spalding LLP, in a $2.35 billion cash deal.
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July 30, 2025
Landlords Not Covered For Lead Exposure Suit, Insurer Says
An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify property owners accused of negligently renting out an apartment with hazardous levels of lead that injured a child, the carrier told an Illinois federal court, saying the owners' policy bars coverage for bodily injury caused by lead.
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July 29, 2025
Allianz Owes Coverage For Hot Air Balloon Crash Suits
An Allianz insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify a hot air balloon company facing multiple suits over crashes that injured several passengers under the policy's balloon premises liability coverage, a Wyoming federal court ruled Tuesday.
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July 29, 2025
No Coverage For $2.5M Herbicide Damage Row, Court Says
An AIG unit has no duty to cover an air services company in a contractor's lawsuit alleging that its aerial application of herbicides caused $2.5 million in expenses to fix grass damage, a New York federal court ruled Tuesday, finding no coverage under both of the company's policies.
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July 29, 2025
Insurer Says Misrepresentations Void Real Estate Co.'s Policy
Material misrepresentations in a commercial real estate firm's insurance renewal application mean the insurer has no duty to defend the firm or a former director against a $6.5 million claim related to the sale of a client's properties, the insurer told an Indiana federal court.
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July 28, 2025
Gun Exclusion Prevents Coverage For Ga. Bar Shooting Suits
An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a bar against underlying suits over a shooting that injured several patrons, a Georgia federal court ruled, finding that a firearms exclusion in the bar's commercial general liability policy precludes coverage.
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July 28, 2025
Insurer Seeks Exit From Privacy Suit Against Optometry Clinic
A Hartford unit told an Illinois federal court it should owe no coverage for a proposed class action accusing an optometry practice of violating patients' privacy rights by transmitting their sensitive information to Alphabet Inc., arguing a raft of exclusions apply.
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July 25, 2025
Insurers Seek Quick Win Over Meta Social Media Suits
Various Hartford and Chubb units told a Delaware state court they should have no duty to defend Meta Platforms Inc. in thousands of pending lawsuits accusing the social media giant of deliberately designing its platforms to be addictive to adolescents, arguing there was no insurable "accident" that allegedly occurred.
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July 25, 2025
Nationwide Urges Mich. Justices To Let Unitary Tax Win Stand
Entities of Nationwide urged the Michigan Supreme Court to reject the state tax agency's arguments that the insurance company's affiliates are required to file taxes as separate entities instead of as a unitary group that can share credits among its members.
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July 24, 2025
Renewed Bid For National Reinsurer May Not Rein In Costs
A revamped legislative proposal to create a national reinsurer would significantly change the federal government's role in insurance markets, but experts say it's not clear that the program would effectively address insurance cost and availability issues.
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July 24, 2025
7th Circ. Erases Class Cert. Over Progressive's Car Valuation
The Seventh Circuit on Thursday reversed a policyholder's class certification win against Progressive Insurance over certain adjustments the insurer makes when calculating a totaled vehicle's actual cash value, finding that whether Progressive paid insureds the proper amount is a primarily individualized inquiry.
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July 24, 2025
Lincoln National Beats Investor Suit Over $2.6B Loss, For Now
A Pennsylvania federal judge on Thursday tossed with leave to amend a proposed securities class action alleging that Lincoln National Corp. misled investors about its financial health before reporting a $2.6 billion net loss in 2022, finding that the investors didn't specify when Lincoln National had access to certain data and studies.
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July 24, 2025
Silica Injury Claims Reemerge As Pollutant Trend To Watch
In what is considered by some as “the next asbestos,” lawsuits alleging injury due to silica exposure are ramping up and the way in which they unfold may bring coverage questions under commercial general liability policies center stage, policyholder attorney Jeff Kiburtz of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP told Law360. Here, he shares his optimism for policyholders' success in litigating these claims and why he believes this topic is one to watch in the CGL industry.
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July 24, 2025
NJ Mall Says Insurers Owe $20M For Prop Helicopter Damage
The owner of the American Dream mall in New Jersey said its insurers wrongfully reduced a $20.5 million claim for loss and damage caused by a decorative 2-ton helicopter falling from the ceiling of its indoor water park, according to a suit removed to federal court Thursday.
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July 24, 2025
Insurance Litigation Week In Review
The Second Circuit ruled that a former New York state official is immune from the National Rifle Association's First Amendment suit, the Eighth Circuit said a Minnesota bar isn't entitled to nearly $2 million for an arson, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a Georgia church's $1.75 million coverage win. Here, Law360 takes a look at the past week's top insurance news.
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July 23, 2025
No Coverage For Deadly Chiefs Super Bowl Rally, Insurer Says
An insurer said it has no duty to defend or indemnify the organizers of the 2024 Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl rally in a suit by the family of a woman who was fatally shot during the event, telling a Missouri federal court that an assault or battery exclusion bars coverage.
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July 23, 2025
Texas Event Venue Not Covered In Fatal Shooting Dispute
An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify the property owner of a Dallas event space in a suit over a fatal shooting, a Texas federal court held, saying it would not alter its previous finding that the claim fell under an assault or battery exclusion.
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July 23, 2025
Thompson Hine Adds Venable Product Liability Atty In LA
Thompson Hine LLP is expanding its litigation team, announcing Wednesday it has brought in a Venable LLP product liability expert as a partner in its year-old Los Angeles office.
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July 22, 2025
Insurer Denied Quick Win In Staffing Co. Injury Coverage Row
A Massachusetts federal court refused to rule that an insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify a staffing agency and its produce distributor client in an underlying worker injury suit, saying a genuine dispute of material fact exists over whether the worker qualifies as an "employee" under the policies.
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July 21, 2025
Avon, Insurers Spar At Ch. 11 Plan Hearing Over Talc Trust
Avon made its case Monday to a Delaware bankruptcy judge for its Chapter 11 liquidation plan, while insurers that issued policies to the cosmetics company alleged its proposal to pay talc injury claims through a trust funded by insurance coverage was unfair to them.
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July 21, 2025
Erie Insurance Blames BMW For $2M Mini Cooper Fire Loss
An insurer for a Pittsburgh car dealership and car owner told a Pennsylvania state court that BMW's North American division owes nearly $2 million in coverage reimbursement for a Mini Cooper vehicle fire because of a faulty battery housing or related components.
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July 18, 2025
Law360 Names 2025's Top Attorneys Under 40
Law360 is pleased to announce the Rising Stars of 2025, our list of more than 150 attorneys under 40 whose legal accomplishments belie their age.
Expert Analysis
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7th Circ. Insurance Ruling Resolves Major Jurisdictional Issue
The Seventh Circuit recently confirmed in StarStone Insurance v. Chicago that attorney fees and costs paid as part of a settlement are covered — while unexpectedly raising and answering a question of first impression about federal jurisdiction over foreign entities, says Lara Langeneckert at Barnes & Thornburg.
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State Farm Rate Hike Portends Intensifying Insurance Crisis
The California Department of Insurance's unprecedented emergency approval of a 17% rate increase for State Farm General Insurance, the first interim rate relief granted before completing full actuarial justification, represents a regulatory watershed and establishes precedent that could fundamentally reshape insurers' response to climate-driven market instability, says Daniel Veroff at Merlin Law Group.
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3 Corporate Deposition Prep Tips To Counter 'Reptile' Tactics
With plaintiffs counsel’s rising use of reptile strategies that seek to activate jurors' survival instincts, corporate deponents face an increased risk of being lulled into providing testimony that undercuts a key defense or sets up the plaintiff's case strategy at trial, making it important to consider factors like cross-examination and timing, say attorneys at Dentons.
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Indemnity Lessons From Mass. Construction Defect Ruling
The Massachusetts high court's decision in Trustees of Boston University v. CHA, holding that a bespoke contractual indemnity provision means that a construction defect claim is not subject to Massachusetts' statute of repose, should spur design and construction professionals to negotiate limited provisions, says Christopher Sweeney at Conn Kavanaugh.
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Statistics Tools Chart A Path For AI Use In Expert Testimony
To avoid the fate of numerous expert witnesses whose testimony was recently deemed inadmissible by courts, experts relying on artificial intelligence and machine learning should learn from statistical tools’ road to judicial acceptance, say directors at Secretariat.
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Ore. High Court Ruling Widens Construction Defect Coverage
A recent Oregon Supreme Court decision, Twigg v. Admiral Insurance, dispels the myth that a contractor's liability for defective work is uninsurable if pursued as a breach of contract, say attorneys at Stoel Rives.
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Measuring The Impact Of Attorney Gender On Trial Outcomes
Preliminary findings from our recent study on how attorney gender might affect case outcomes support the conclusion that there is little in the way of a clear, universal bias against attorneys of a given gender, say Jill Leibold, Olivia Goodman and Alexa Hiley at IMS Legal Strategies.
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Oft-Forgotten Evidence Rule Can Be Powerful Trial Tool
Rule 608 may be one of the most overlooked provisions in the Federal Rules of Evidence, but as a transformative tool that allows attorneys to attack a witness's character for truthfulness through opinion or reputation testimony, its potential to reshape a case cannot be overstated, says Marian Braccia at Temple University Beasley School of Law.
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Ruling On Pollutants And Indemnity Offers Insurers Mixed Bag
Both insurers and policyholders can reap benefits from a Georgia federal court's recent declaratory judgment decision, which broadly defined pollutants, but also deemed the duty to indemnify not yet ripe for adjudication, says Jena Emory at Morris Manning.
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What Disparate Impact Order Means For Insurers' AI Use
A recent executive order seeking to bar disparate impact theory conveys a meaningful policy shift, but does not alter the legal status of federal antidiscrimination law or enforceability of state laws, such as those holding insurers accountable for using artificial intelligence in a nondiscriminatory matter, say attorneys at Eversheds Sutherland.
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4 Ways To Leverage A Jury's Underdog Perceptions
Counsel should consider how common factors that speak to their client's size, power, past challenges and alignment with jurors can be presented to try and paint their client as a sympathetic underdog, says Ken Broda-Bahm at Persuasion Strategies.
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Why Hiring Former Jurors As Consultants Can Be Risky
The defense team's decision to hire former juror Victoria George in the high-profile retrial of Karen Read shines a spotlight on this controversial strategy, which raises important legal, ethical and tactical questions despite not being explicitly prohibited, says Nikoleta Despodova at ND Litigation.
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How Attys Can Use A Therapy Model To Help Triggered Clients
Attorneys can lean on key principles from a psychotherapeutic paradigm known as the "Internal Family Systems" model to help manage triggered clients and get settlement negotiations back on track, says Jennifer Gibbs at Zelle.