Insurance Litigation

The Insurance Litigation practice group at Dickinson Wright represents insurers in a wide variety of litigation in federal and state courts across the United States. We offer carriers the benefits of both first-chair trial lawyers and seasoned appellate advocates in coverage cases, bad faith and related suits, actions involving punitive damages and statutory damages caps, and other kinds of litigation. Attorneys in the Insurance Litigation practice group are based in many of our offices from coast to coast, working together to provide national coverage for clients.

Our attorneys are often chosen to serve as lead defense counsel in complex, multi-defendant cases and as national class action counsel on behalf of insurers. When an insurance carrier is preparing for appeal or is already on appeal, Dickinson Wright brings in experienced appellate lawyers who combine skills in legal analysis and written and oral advocacy with specific proficiency in insurance matters.

Our Clients

Our insurance clients run the gamut of lines of insurance: property and casualty insurers, including automobile, no-fault and PIP, homeowners, commercial general liability, builders-risk, and cyber-risk coverages; commercial property, business-interruption, and communicable-disease coverages; workers’ compensation; legal malpractice, medical malpractice, director & officer liability, and other professional liability insurers; specialty line insurers; health insurers; life insurers; and title insurers. Our lawyers have also represented insurance trade associations, frequently as amici curiae on issues of general concern to the industry.

Our Services

Coverage Litigation

Dickinson Wright attorneys have represented carriers on a broad range of coverage issues, both in trial courts and on appeal. The issues have ranged from coverage under automobile and homeowners policies for “road rage” injuries to D&O coverage for the cost of litigating or settling complex shareholder litigation. Representative matters include:

• Serving as national counsel to a major insurer in business-interruption coverage litigation arising from coronavirus pandemic losses in lawsuits in numerous states from California and Washington to New Hampshire, New York, and Florida.
• On a certified question from the Ninth Circuit, convinced the Arizona Supreme Court in Apollo Education Group v. National Union (2021) to adopt, in construing a D&O policy’s consent-to-settlement clause, the insurer’s perspective of the reasonableness of withholding consent.
• Secured a favorable dispositive ruling for a builders-risk insurer in an action seeking nine-figure damages at an iron ore processing plant, including alleged business-interruption damages, physical damages, and punitive damages for bad faith.
• Persuaded a federal district court to dismiss, and the federal circuit court to affirm the dismissal of, a coverage action against a D&O insurer for $9 million for the costs of five shareholder class actions.
• Represented a multi-line insurer in a putative class action challenging the client’s ability to reduce underinsured-motorist payments by the amount of workers’ compensation benefits received.

Bad Faith and Related Litigation

Dickinson Wright attorneys have deep experience in defending high-exposure claims against insurers and reinsurers for bad faith and other extra-contractual liability, including claims under first-party and third-party coverages, as well as workers’ compensation bad faith. Such claims may take many forms, including bad faith and fiduciary-duty claims by insureds or their assignees; tort claimants’ suits for abuse of process or intentional infliction of emotional distress; and claims for violation of statutes proscribing unfair trade practices or unfair claim settlement practices.

Our attorneys have particular experience in defending against claims of “institutional” bad faith based on general company practices and procedures. These include institutional claims based on compensation and bonus practices, profitability targets, claim severity goals, claim-handling processes and reforms, and use of computerized claim-adjustment tools. For example:

• Obtained dismissal of a putative statewide class action attacking an automobile insurer’s claim-settlement practices for “minor impact soft tissue” injuries.
• Secured summary judgment on a homeowner’s claim that the insurer acted in bad faith in determining that hurricane loss was caused by a non-covered flood rather than wind.
• Obtained several favorable dispositions of cases brought by workers’ compensation policyholders and claimants alleging unreasonable claim handling and institutional bad faith.
• Represented a multi-line insurer in multiple bad faith class actions filed in state and federal courts after the state supreme court interpreted policy language to permit insureds to “stack” uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage under multiple policies.