One of the more ambiguous and gray areas in insurance coverage law is the question of when an insured is or should be aware that a claim is on its way. The law recognizes that this can certainly occur at some point before the insured actually is handed suit papers by a process server, but
Misrepresentations in Insurance Applications
Misrepresentations and Voiding Insurance Policies: What is the Effect of Silence?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Interesting case out of the Massachusetts Appeals Court at the end of last month on one of the more difficult questions in insurance coverage law, which is when does an insured commit a misrepresentation in providing information to its insurer such that the policy should be deemed void. Lots of tricks and ins and outs…
The Duty to Disclose Possible Exposures When Applying for Insurance Policies
Why do we have insurance coverage lawyers, and why, as Mark Mayerson has written, has “insurance-coverage law . . . developed over the last 20 years into a rarefied specialty practice”? Because when lawyers who don’t know their way around the subject get involved with insurance coverage, problems just pile up. A case…
Voiding Policies for Misrepresentations
By Stephen Rosenberg on
I like this case. Lobsters, boats, New England in the summer, insurance coverage – what’s not to like? Beyond that, this decision this month from the First Circuit is a nice textbook example of when a misrepresentation in an insurance application will void a policy. We all know that obtaining insurance requires applying for insurance,…
What if Both the Insurer and the Insured Cause a Misrepresentation in an Insurance Application?
By Stephen Rosenberg on
This is fun – what happens if insurance coverage is based on misrepresentations in an application, but the misrepresentations were due to both mistakes by the insurer and oversights by the insured? The general rule, with variations among jurisdictions as to certain specifics, is that coverage is void if obtained based on misrepresentations in an…