Basics of Insurance Law

The insurance industry infiltrates nearly every aspect of our personal lives and, for some of us, it influences nearly every aspect of our law practice. There are scores of lawyers whose practices are entirely and directly focused on insurance (i.e. coverage lawyers), and even more whose practices are at least indirectly dependent on the existence of insurance (i.e. insurance defense lawyers and the plaintiffs' lawyers who are hoping and praying that the defendants they've sued have insurance). This program is not for those lawyers.

This program will cover the very basics of insurance and insurance law for lawyers who are either just starting out, or starting to think that they should know a little more about insurance based on the direction their practices are heading. The presenters take nothing for granted, explaining what insurance actually is before providing an overview of key topics that will give the viewer some basic fluency in the issues that recur over and over again in cases about insurance, or cases where one of the parties' insurance becomes an issue. The course reviews different types of insurance policies, common clauses and definitions, areas where disputes frequently arise, and discuss some of the major splits in the ways that different states address common disputes regarding insurance policies and their terms.

Learning Objectives:

1. Provide a working understanding of what insurance is, why it exists, and the type of legal issues that arise
2. Offer an understanding of different types of insurance policies (i.e. CGL, EPLI), and different variations of coverage (i.e. occurrence based, claims made)
3. Discuss key issues including the duty to defend, the duty to indemnify, reservation of rights letters, and the tri-partite relationship between insurers, insureds, and insurance defense counsel