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Practice Areas: Insurance Law For Policyholders Our work for insurers, and particularly our role in shaping coverage law at the appellate level, has led to numerous referrals from other lawyers on insurance coverage matters for policyholders. We represent a variety of corporate policyholders, including a publicly traded operator of residential care facilities for the disabled, oil and gas industry entities, technology companies and several local Austin businesses. We also represent or have represented over fifty Texas school districts on coverage matters and have had great success in convincing insurers who initially denied coverage for a suit against the district to reverse that decision and pay for defense and indemnity when the insurer makes litigation necessary. We have a strong track record of winning quick summary judgments. For example, we recently obtained a plaintiff's summary judgment for the Pecos Independent School District against a well-known international insurance company for attaching to a health policy a restrictive endorsement which was not approved by the insurance regulatory agency. This ruling led to a quick resolution of the case. Our other policyholder clients range from oil field service companies whose insurers delay and deny coverage, to a silicon chip company pursuing business interruption coverage relating to an earthquake in Taiwan, to bank directors seeking coverage under director and officer liability carriers for lender liability suits, to an equipment manufacturer who purchased transit coverage for sensitive equipment, only to have the insurer deny coverage for a loss that occurred in transit. We also assist defense counsel in getting their legal bills paid by recalcitrant carriers who insure the defense lawyers' clients. Our approach to this work is to begin with a non-confrontational letter, analyzing the insurance coverage under the applicable law. When faced with a well-reasoned coverage opinion, most insurers will reconsider an improper denial of coverage. While we are always prepared to litigate, we have found that thoughtful legal analysis, followed up by artful negotiation, usually yields highly cost-effective results. |
