An unidentified scholar once opined, “If not for insurance, would there be so much litigation?” It is a sad but true realism, that, so much of what happens in the law is driven by the deep pockets of the insurance purse. The insurance policy, often made up of a million dollars or more in the commercial setting, makes for an attractive prize to reach for by the would-be litigants. Litigants know that the money is there and secured and thus are willing to expend time and money chasing after it. Now, where there is no insurance policy or where there isn’t enough money in the insurance policy, it would stand as a deterrent to many would-be litigants from mounting a fight.

All too often, subcontractors wrongly believe that since they have purchased general liability insurance and have paid a lot of money for the insurance, that they will be ‘covered’ for all sorts of things. What we have learned over the years is, if an insurance policy is purchased based solely upon price, it is usually not a good thing. What the buyer doesn’t realize is that their insurance coverage literally changes from year to year even if they keep the same insurance carrier and merely renewed their policy. This is because the insuring language ‘adjusts’ or is ‘modified’ from year to year to reflect changes in the marketplace. We generally read that to mean that someone, somewhere out there beat the insurance company and now the insurance company is reacting by changing the terms of their coverage ever so slightly to not cover that risk or to reduce their exposure to that risk.

       Understanding those concepts and all of the nuances surrounding those concepts is key to understanding why a claim, valid or completely crazy, is pursued.

       Understanding that concept well enables us to fashion a winning strategy for our clients regardless of which side of the fight the client sits as litigants. Knowing who or what the target is, and more importantly whether the client is the target greatly affects the strategy to be used. Where it is available, we help select the right insurance coverage to apply to a claim, not only to be efficient, but also to save the client’s future cost to obtain insurance.