Winning and Losing Strategies Litigating the Duty to Defend

Raymond Sheen spoke at the American College of Coverage Counsel's 10th Annual Meeting panel "Winning and Losing Strategies Litigating the Duty to Defend."

This panel of counsel for policyholders, insurers, and a federal district court judge addresses argumentative and substantive strategies and their outcomes in litigating the duty to defend under general liability and other specialty policies providing a defense obligation in a variety of types of underlying claims. The panel focuses on recent decisions and personal experience regarding litigating the duty to defend and reception of these duty-to-defend arguments by federal and state court judges. The panel addresses useful and unhelpful rhetorical devices in addressing whether the duty exists and its scope, differences between jurisdiction, and resulting issues arising from various procedural postures in which the duty to defend arises, including assessment of reasonable and necessary defense fees and costs when a duty is found.