In any coverage analysis or litigation, whether you are a primary or excess insurer, cedent or reinsurer, it is important to initially ask several questions:  What is the potential for extra-contractual claims? What are the timing issues related to a disclaimer or notice? Are there global implications to the client? Does winning this case potentially hurt the interpretation of the client’s policy language in the next case? What safeguards exist to prevent the insured from defaulting while coverage litigation ensues? What rights, if any, need to be protected from a reinsurance prospective?

Goldberg Segalla LLP’s Insurance Coverage and Extra-Contractual Liability Practice Group possesses comprehensive knowledge of the complexities that frequently arise in insurance coverage disputes. We aggressively defend insurers in state and federal courts throughout the United States. As part of its Best Practices philosophy, Goldberg Segalla’s Insurance Coverage and Extra-Contractual Liability Practice Group maintains current awareness of court decisions throughout the nation.Every two weeks the attorneys in our group publish CaseWatch, a survey on every appellate level coverage decision in the United States.The group has over a dozen attorneys throughout the state, but is seamlessly connected by the most current technology.This allows us to meet regularly and ensure that a cohesive and singular position is asserted for clients represented in different venues on similar issues.

The attorneys in the Insurance Coverage and Extra-Contractual Liability Practice Group have heightened appreciation of the nuances associated with insurance coverage disputes. This includes:

• Aggressive motion practice to dismiss common bad faith and extra-contractual claims at the onset of litigation, thereby ensuring the proper confines of discovery;
• Sensitivity to discovery of proprietary information;
• Consideration of agent liability for errors and omissions;
• Emerging theories concerning policy conditions and exclusions;
• Scrutiny of the key items which determine when a reinsurance contract can be rescinded, and examination of the regulatory restrictions that affectretrocession to insurers or reinsurers.

With well over 100 years combined experience, our Group includes Partners Thomas F. Segalla, Richard J. Cohen, Daniel W. Gerber, and Joanna M. Roberto. Tom Segalla enjoys a tremendous and well-deserved national reputation. Tom is a past national chair of DRI’s Insurance Law Committee, and is the current Chair of DRI’s Law Institute. He has authored several leading law textbooks (including Couch on Insurance) and is a renowned expert both in insurance law and New York worksite injury litigation. Tom has been retained as an insurance coverage and bad faith expert in more than three dozen states, including New York, Nevada, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, California, and Louisiana, as well as in Puerto Rico.

In addition to being the firm’s managing partner, Rick Cohen concentrates his practice in complex insurance coverage and bad faith analysis and litigation. He has been successful in recovering millions of dollars on behalf of insurers. He has devoted a substantial portion of his nearly 20 years of experience as a litigator and trial lawyer assisting, advising and counseling insurance carriers on the entire gamut of coverage and extra-contractual issues and has prosecuted and defended a multitude of cases on their behalves. He has authored and lectured dozens of times throughout the United States on substantive issues relating to these areas, and has served as the National Co-Chair of DRI’s Insurance Company Relations Subcommittee.  Rick is also a CPCU instructor.

In 2005, Dan Gerber argued the seminal case in front of New York’s highest court determining whether New York would require insurers to demonstrate prejudice when disclaiming on late notice. Dan’s practice concentrates on sophisticated coverage matters of all kinds. He is the immediate past Chair of the Insurance Coverage Committee for the New York State Bar Association’s Torts Insurance and Compensation Law Section.  In 2008, he will chair the entire 4,000 member Torts Insurance and Compensation Law Section.  In addition, Dan recently acted as the New York Coordinating Editor of DRI’s Protecting the Privilege Compendium, a national treatise on discovery in insurance coverage litigation.

Having served as exclusive coverage counsel for a multi-national insurance carrier, Joanna Roberto has successfully concluded numerous construction defect coverage matters pending in multiple jurisdictions. She is admitted to practice law in New York and Connecticut, as well as in the United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Northern Districts of New York, the District of Connecticut, and the Court of Appeals for the Second and Tenth Circuits.

Please contact Rick Cohen or Tom Segalla for additional information.