Comprehensive General Liability Litigation

We have vast experience with a variety of coverage issues before both state and federal courts nationally arising from our clients' comprehensive general liability coverages over bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury. These issues include the duty to settle, the duty to defend, "target tender," consent clause enforcement, independent counsel requirements, fortuity, existence and number of occurrence or accidents, late notice, additional insureds, covered contracts, among many others. We utilize our extensive coverage experience to provide efficient but comprehensive advice on effectively responding to claims with an eye towards limiting unnecessary litigation costs but ensuring that all rights are fully preserved. Our vast experience and knowledge have helped our clients receive favorable rulings based on various coverage theories.

KCESD has also litigated construction contracts against other insurers, additional insureds, and claimants in both federal and state courts. We frequently encounter and litigate allocation disputes between multiple insurers. Our keen knowledge of the Federal Declaratory Judgment Statute, as well as jurisdiction and forum requirements, puts us in an extremely advantageous position to protect our clients' interests and develop creative strategies aimed at bringing disputes to prompt resolution.

We have extensive experience briefing and arguing dispositive motions on behalf of our clients to avoid prolonged litigation in both federal and state courts. Our successes span a myriad of coverage issues, including bad faith, independent counsel requirements, allocation and trigger, and defense and indemnity obligations.

Our talented attorneys have served as lead counsel in multiple joint defense groups, including cases involving millions, and sometimes billions, of dollars in estimated losses. We excel at preparing our clients for the taking of depositions and arguing discovery motions, including successfully asserting motions to compel and defending protective orders.

Particular issues our firm's attorneys have advised on and litigated include:

• Advertising Liability Coverage – Coverage for copyright, trademark, and patent infringement, false advertising, antitrust violations, securities fraud, and banking institution failures.
• Personal Injury Coverage – Coverage for civil rights actions, zoning cases, trespass, maternity leave class actions, wrongful termination claims, and environmental cases.
• Long-Tail Liability Coverage – Coverage for losses resulting from environmental contamination or injurious exposure including various issues such as trigger, allocation, number of occurrences, and anti-stacking provisions.
• Business Risk Exclusions – Applicability of exclusions to underlying cases filed nationwide involving items and products such as fire-retardant plywood, plastic piping, and defective buildings.
• Additional Insured Coverage – Coverage for additional insureds and the relationship to indemnity agreements in the chain of product distribution, construction industry, and in other commercial relationships with parties such as vendors and products distributors.
• Excess Insurance – Issues concerning vertical versus horizontal exhaustion, rights of excess insurers to challenge allocations, drop down issues, and excess/primary relationships.
• Reformation and Rescission – Issues concerning liability insurance policies due to mutual mistake or material misrepresentations.