Farella’s Insurance Recovery Group has been recovering money for clients and protecting their assets for more than 40 years. Our clients include private and public technology companies of all sizes and in all sectors, real estate development and construction industry businesses, venture capital and private equity firms, energy and mining companies, consumer product manufacturers and distributors, public entities and non-profits, as well as executives and high-net worth individuals.  As one of the first California-based law firms to establish a stand-alone recovery practice, today the firm works exclusively with policyholders to maximize the value of their insurance, resolve coverage disputes, establish risk management strategies, structure insurance programs, and draft policy language that safeguards their interests.

Our team takes a practical, business-minded approach to using insurance to achieve business and strategic objectives. We understand how insurance companies make decisions, assess risks, and quantify damages and exploit the legal leverage points in claims and policies to protect our clients.

Effective Claims Advocacy and Recovery

Clients rely on Farella’s insurance recovery attorneys to navigate the claims process. We help clients set realistic and achievable expectations that are responsive to their business and strategic objectives. We evaluate potential insurance claims and pursue them by strategically notifying insurers to maximize the chances of a positive response, manage the flow of information from defense counsel and the insureds to insurers with any eye to coverage issues and the insurers’ needs, advocate coverage positions, and negotiate settlements. We adjust our approach to the needs of the particular claim, whether through negotiation, mediation, arbitration, or litigation.

We’re particularly adept at finding and exercising rights to coverage for a wide variety of first-party and third-party exposures, including:

  • Securities fraud and other corporate directors’ and officers’ liabilities
  • Technology  errors and omissions claims
  • Data security breaches and other cyber liability risks
  • Products liability
  • Professional liability
  • Intellectual property disputes
  • Environmental liabilities
  • Employment litigation
  • Construction delay and defects claims
  • Property losses and business interruption
  • Disasters like earthquakes, fires and floods

Insurance disputes are stressful events for businesses and individuals alike. They can be uncertain, slow (because of insurance companies’ internal processes and strategies), and time-consuming. We believe that open, honest, and frequent communication is the most effective tool for reducing the stress of claims and disputes. Throughout the claim process, we provide regular and comprehensive updates to our clients and seek consistent feedback to remain fully informed, so that we can adapt our methods and tactics as client interests evolve.

Consulting and Analysis

We use our claims experience and close, long-term relationships with our clients to better understand—and help them meet—their insurance needs and objectives before claims arise. Our understanding of our clients’ businesses and the risks that arise from them helps us analyze current and proposed policies and negotiate policy wording that addresses our clients’ unique concerns. We advise our clients on, and work with their insurance brokers, to negotiate favorable policy wording in virtually all commercial insurance lines, including directors’ & officers’ (D&O) liability, technology errors & omissions (E&O) liability, cyber, and comprehensive general liability policies (CGL). We also work with captive insurers, pooled risk transfer programs and other risk management devices in drafting policy language and addressing claims.

Creative Billing and Fee Arrangements

Managing cost, particularly that of legal services, is often as a critical to achieving the best possible outcome for our clients as is the dollar value of a recovery or the timing of a resolution. We embrace lean staffing to avoid inefficiencies and overlap, while at the same time draw on the collective experience of our insurance recovery lawyers when needed.

In addition, to helping our clients predict and control costs as we pursue their claims, we offer a variety of alternative billing solutions in addition to hourly rates, including solutions involving one or more of the following alternatives:

  • Flat fee and “not to exceed” budgets
  • Reduced hourly rates or flat fee plus success bonus
  • Full contingency
  • Mixed contingency (reduced hourly rates plus percentage of recovery)
  • Monthly retainers
  • Phased “risk collars”

Read our award-winning blog – The Policyholder Perspective – www.farellacoveragelaw.com

Firm Highlights

Publication

Fire Preparedness for Vineyards and Wineries

Winter, spring, summer, fire season, and fall – as Californians, we have all become accustomed to a fifth season – fire season. Even worse, fire season was once confined to just a few months...

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News

Chambers USA 2023 Recognizes Farella Braun + Martel Lawyers, Practices

Farella Braun + Martel is pleased to announce that Chambers USA has recognized 16 lawyers and six practice areas in the legal directory’s 2023 edition. Individual California and Western U.S. Rankings: Sarah Bell &ndash...

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Publication

Breach Cases Hint At Liability Coverage For Mobile Losses

More and more, companies generate revenue through the use of their customers' or users' mobile devices. This interaction takes many forms, from collecting transaction fees for mobile payments or cryptocurrency purchases to generating advertising...

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Publication

A Promise To Pay Is Just That: Two Courts Reject Insurers’ Bids To Escape Their Coverage Obligations by Complaining About Third Party Recoveries or Reductions in Liabilities

An insurer in Washington could not eliminate its coverage obligation based on its insured’s recovery from a third party.  T-Mobile USA, Inc. v. Steadfast Ins. Co., et al ., No. 82704-9-I, 2022 WL 17246715...

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Publication

Caught in the Crossfire — How Will the War Exclusion Affect Commercial Policyholders?

The war exclusion has received a lot of attention over the past year, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Policyholders’ concern that insurers will assert the exclusion as a basis to deny coverage...

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Publication

Nonprofit Basics: Insurance Coverage for the New Nonprofit

Welcome to EO Radio Show – Your Nonprofit Legal Resource . Risk management for a nonprofit starts with good governance, effective management and appropriate policies for employment practices, conflicts of interest and financial management...

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Publication

More Stringent California Claim Law Could Benefit Policyholders

To combat a perceived litigation tactic by plaintiffs counsel of using settlement demands within policy limits to set up insurers for bad faith, insurance company associations lobbied for statutory clarification to avoid uncertainty around...

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Publication

Maximizing Your Insurance Coverage for Data Privacy Liability

With news of massive data breaches making headlines in recent years, the handling of personal data has become a focus for legislators and regulators around the world. Compliance with data privacy regulations such as the...

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Publication

Continuing Use of CGL Policies to Cover Data Breach Losses

Our lives and the products and devices we use become more dependent on data by the day. As a result, cyberattacks and data breaches present everchanging risks to companies and individuals, and the importance...

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Publication

Using Multi-Factor Authentication as a Prerequisite to Cyber Liability Coverage

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is more than an annoying popup or text message when logging onto a company’s website or platform. Not only is using MFA a sound security practice and good business, it is frequently...

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