Personal Injury Law

Insurance Coverage Litigation?

By John A. Day

In most states the duty to defend an insured in litigation is broader than the duty to indemnify that insured. 

Here is a 50-state survey prepared by the highly regarded Chicago-based firm of Hinshaw & Culbertson on the duty to defend.  Here is how they describe the 105-page publication:

Duty To Defend contains a survey of the law of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia on an insurer’s duty to defend a lawsuit against its insured and related topics. Each state entry includes a discussion of the scope of the duty to defend in that state and of the test employed by the state to determine whether the insurer owes such a duty. The state entries also include discussions of whether the insurer may defend pursuant to a reservation of rights and the implications of doing the same, including conflicts of interest which may be created; whether a declaratory judgment action may be brought to determine the insurer’s rights and obligations under the policy; and the consequences of the insurer’s failure to defend where it has an obligation to do so.

Full post as published by Day on Torts on September 05, 2008 (boomark / email).