In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many questions about insurance coverage. Because each policy is different, it is very difficult to generalize about insurance coverage. However, one thing we know to be true is that policyholders or insureds will be advocating for losses, primarily business losses, to be covered, while the insurance companies will be arguing the insurance policies preclude coverage either due to policy definitions or due to policy exclusions ...
In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak and the World Health Organization’s declaration of this coronavirus as a pandemic, employers of all sizes have serious, and somewhat unprecedented, issues to consider. Fortunately for most employers, workers’ compensation may not be one of them ...
This 28th edition of Unprecedented, our weekly update on COVID-19-related litigation, includes a number of updates on the mounting number of business interruption coverage disputes -- including a claim against a broker whose alleged failure to obtain infectious disease coverage left the insured without coverage for COVID-19-induced losses ...
Gilda Radner’s character Rosanne Rosannadanna always ended her routines on Saturday Night live by saying, “It’s always something.” She might well have been talking about COVID-19, the effects of which are just beginning to be felt throughout the world. Schools are closed, supply chains may be cracked, travel is slowing and events are being postponed or canceled outright, with more impacts probably to come ...
The new virus COVID-19, also known as coronavirus, is spreading exponentially all over the world, also in Brazil. The outbreak is affecting the way in which our clients and their clients conduct their businesses, and the behavior of each and every one of us drastically. The virus is not only tragic for those, whose health is being affected, but also for large parts of the economy, such as the tourism industry, airlines and general retail (other than nutrition-related) ...
Does your organization’s insurance program provide any protection from the economic disruption caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic? What steps should you take to assess and protect that insurance coverage? The Bradley Policyholder Insurance Coverage team has provided an informative webinar addressing insurance coverage and claims adjustment for event cancellation, business interruption, and third-party claims stemming from the pandemic ...
Do I have a COVID-19 business interruption claim? Particularly if you operate in the leisure, retail or hospitality sectors, your business has likely suffered significant financial losses from the disruption caused by COVID-19. In trying to alleviate the impact of those losses, you might have identified that your business’s insurance policy offered cover for ‘business interruption’ (or ‘BI’) ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate impact on skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. While the following CMS recommendations and guidelines identify nursing homes as the target recipients, they are applicable to all facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid funds, and are therefore subject to CMS's oversight ...
On 1 April 2014 amendments to the Contributions Act increasing the general rate for health insurance contributions from 13% to 15% came into force. The new contribution rate will be applied to salaries beginning in April 2014. Receipts related to previous periods will be grandfathered in at the previous applicable rate. Unused vacation for 2013 will be calculated at the 13% contribution rate and the new rate will apply to unused vacation in 2014 ...
Target, Home Depot, Sony, Anthem. All of these companies have been victims of very public cybersecurity breaches. Given what we know about those breaches, how can any other company know that it is safe from a cyber attack? No firewall appears to be unbreachable and no security system impenetrable. No company is big or small or traditional enough to avoid such exposure, as long as the business receives or transmits data or uses computer networks ...
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) contains minimum security standards that Covered Entities and Business Associates must employ to safeguard protected health information (“PHI”). As part of HIPAA’s security standards, Business Associates are obligated to report all security incidents to the Covered Entity ...
A year ago, President Obama issued Executive Order 13636, or "Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity." The order concerned "critical infrastructure," which it defined as "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety or any combination of those matters ...
Damage Insurance - Lavery, de Billy, L.L.P. - Canada Hidden Defect, Reduction in the Purchase Price and Liability Insurance Coverage On June 2, 2010, the Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed the Superior Court’s decision (per Justice Gill es Hébert), which dismissed the insured’s action in warranty against his liability insurer under his home owner’s policy ...
THE FACTS OF THE CASEThe case has as its backdrop a family tragedy. On the morning of April 22, 2002, Martin Brossard went to the residence of his former spouse, Liliane de Montigny. Following a sequence of events, the order of which could not be determined from the evidence, he strangled his spouse and drowned their two children, Claudia and Béatrice, in the bathtub of the residence ...
Scope of Article Declaratory judgment and interpleader actions can be very useful in insurance disputes. Declaratory judgment may be used to resolve issues such as whether a policy was validly issued or otherwise is in effect, the meaning of policy provisions, and the duties of the parties under the policy. See generally Long, Rowland H., The Law of Liability Insurance, Vol. 3, Matthew Bender 1993 ...
On November 4, 2014, voters in Denton made that city the first in Texas to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits. Within a day, lawsuits were filed by the Texas General Land Office and the Texas Oil and Gas Association, and state lawmakers and regulators voiced strong opposition to the ballot measure ...
Educational institutions (“recipient” or “recipient institutions”) have been waiting for the Department of Education to issue formal Title IX regulations after it issued interim guidance in September 2017. This interim guidance rescinded previous Obama-era guidance that called for strict enforcement of Title IX and indicated that new formal guidance would be forthcoming ...
Only the terms of the insurance policy itself - and not the provisions of an underlying indemnity contract - determine the scope of coverage afforded to an additional insured, provided that the insurance and indemnity provisions in the underlying indemnity contract are separate and independent from one another. For additional insured and indemnity provisions to be deemed “separate and independent,” “Texas law only requires the additional insured provision to be a discrete requirement ...
