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NJ Supreme Court Decision Defines the Parameters of Acceptable Precedent in Bad-Faith Claims
For insurance attorneys and carriers alike, the decision to disclaim coverage is an invitation to enter delicate and uncertain legal territory, situated firmly between a rock and a hard place. On one side of the scale lies the potential contractual obligation to defend or indemnify the insured. On the other is the prudency of avoiding coverage obligations that were never bargained for. The crux of this dilemma arises from the insurer's heightened duty of good faith.
Implicitly written into every insurance contact by operation of law is the obligation to investigate claims with the utmost honestly and sincerity. This obligation runs deep, as reflected by the fact that unlike a typical contract, a showing that an insurer breached its contractual duty of good faith does not always necessarily require a showing of any malice or ill will. Rather, simple proof that the insurer violated its fiduciary obligations to its insured may often be sufficient to make a bad-faith claim. In that regard, nearly every jurisdiction has affixed a “fairly debatable” standard of proof to insurance bad-faith claims.
Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It
Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.
The DOJ's Corporate Enforcement Policy: One Year Later
The DOJ's Criminal Division issued three declinations since the issuance of the revised CEP a year ago. Review of these cases gives insight into DOJ's implementation of the new policy in practice.
A Lawyer's System for Active Reading
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.
Protecting Innovation in the Cyber World from Patent Trolls
With trillions of dollars to keep watch over, the last thing we need is the distraction of costly litigation brought on by patent assertion entities (PAEs or "patent trolls"), companies that don't make any products but instead seek royalties by asserting their patents against those who do make products.