After a barn collapsed in rural Dane County, should a subrogation waiver in the construction contract used for the structure prevent an insurance company from recovering money it had to pay out because of the disaster?
Read More »Tag Archives: Insurance
Covering your assets: Insurance cuts into profits, but is it worth it?
Safety nets come with great expense.
Read More »Fines about to rise for uninsured, per court decision
The cost of being uninsured in America is going up significantly next year for millions of people.
Read More »Take time with 4 ‘standard’ contract terms
Spend any time within spitting distance of a construction project and you’ll instantly feel how the crush of time pressure affects those involved in varying ways, with multiple ripple effects.
Read More »BENCH BLOG: Justices unanimous in asbestos decision
There has been a recent spate of appellate cases interpreting insurance policies, including Schinner v. Gundrum and Barrows v. Renfrow. In the newest, Phillips v. Parmelee, all three levels of courts agreed on the interpretation of an asbestos exclusion.
Read More »Appeals court: Insurer exempt in shooting death (UPDATE)
A Sheboygan insurance company is exempt from having to pay after a man accidentally killed his friend in Oconto County three years ago, an appeals court has ruled.
Read More »Managing the malpractice debate
When you run a practice, cutting costs often is a must. Bargain prices on everything from office supplies to office space can make or break your business.
Understanding common construction coverage concerns
As a construction company or contractor, it is important to insulate yourself from potential liability for injuries and damage that are inevitable in the construction profession.
Read More »Plaintiffs’ attorney group urges increase in trucking insurance limits
Federal trucking industry insurance standards from 1980 create safety hazards on American roads and prevent accident victims from being fully compensated, according to a new report from the American Association for Justice, a plaintiffs’ attorneys’ group.
Read More »Malpractice insurance: How to look good for an underwriter
While legal malpractice insurance is a necessity, overpaying for it is not. One key to getting the best rate for legal malpractice insurance is showing the insurance underwriter a law practice that’s set up to be low-risk.
Read More »Insurance – Reformation
2011AP1487 Palkowski v. Acuity
Read More »Insurance – Reformation
2011AP1487 Palkowski v. Acuity
Read More »Insurance doesn’t cover bat guano nightmare, says Wis. Supreme Court
A Wisconsin couple learned in 2007 that their vacation home had been rendered uninhabitable because of bat guano that had piled up in the walls. Last week, the state supreme court compounded their troubles by deciding that the loss wasn’t covered by their insurance.
Read More »THE DARK SIDE: Reality matters, not perception
From time to time, I hear people say something like, “It’s not only important the judicial system be fair; it is important the judicial system be perceived as fair.”
LAWBIZ COACHES CORNER: Fee-suit exclusions muddy malpractice waters
The cost of malpractice insurance is an issue for every lawyer.
LAWBIZ COACHES CORNER: Are you excluded from malpractice insurance coverage?
The cost of malpractice insurance is an issue for every lawyer. Annual malpractice premiums cost thousands of dollars, often straining the ability of small firms and sole practitioners to purchase when premiums approach 10 percent or more of their income on a product they likely will never need.
Insurance; Bad faith
2011AP42 Winter v. Seneca, Sigel Mut. Ins. Co.
Read More »Insurance – subrogation — offsets
2010AP2435 Peterson v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company, et al.
Read More »Insurance — statute of limitations
2011AP167 Elliott v. General Casualty Company of Wisconsin
Read More »Supreme Court seeks to clarify insurance exclusions
Two cases pending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court this term should clarify the meanings of two common exclusions in insurance policies: pollution exclusions in homeowner policies and motorized vehicle exclusions in farm policies.
Read More »Insurance – Coverage – property damage
2010AP1835 The Selmer Company v. Selective Insurance Company of South Carolina, et al.
Read More »2010AP2620 Geiger v. Coleman Engineering Company, et al.
Insurance Title insurance; duty to defend
Read More »2010AP364 Rebholz, et al. v. Lakeland Leisure Corporation, et al.
Insurance Releases; extrinsic evidence
Read More »10-3015 Universal Mortgage Corp. v. Wurttembergische Versigherung AG
Insurance Bankers bonds; Employee misconduct When an insured incurs liability to a third party — whether in contract or tort — as a result of employee misconduct, financial loss resulting from that liability is not “directly” caused by the employee misconduct and therefore is not covered by fidelity bonds containing direct-loss language. “The particular bond at issue in our case ...
Read More »10-3898 & 11-1006 Weitzenkamp v. UNUM Life Ins. Co. of America
Insurance ERISA; self-reported symptoms limitation The failure to include a self-reported symptoms limitation in the summary plan description (“SPD”) prevents an ERISA plan from relying on it to discontinue benefits. “Here, the SPD clearly sets out that long-term benefits will be discontinued after twenty-four months if a participant’s disability is due to mental illness or substance abuse. It does not, ...
Read More »2009AP1558 Steffens v. BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois
Insurance ERISA
Read More »2010AP1773 Blumenfeld v. Jeans
Insurance Subrogation; collateral source rule
Read More »2008AP2595 Brethorst v. Allstate Property & Casualty Ins. Co.
Insurance Bad faith An insured may file a bad faith claim without also filing a breach of contract claim. “[W]hile Jones held that a bad faith claim need not be accompanied by a breach of contract claim, it did not hold that a first-party bad faith claim need not be accompanied by a breach of contract. Instead, the court in ...
Read More »10-2112 Jackman Financial Corp. v. Humana Ins. Co.
Insurance ERISA; facility-of-payment clauses Where a life insurance policy contained a facility-of-payment clause, it did not violate ERISA for the insurer to pay the proceeds to the insured’s children. “Under the arbitrary and capricious standard, we overturn the administrator’s decision only where there is an absence of reasoning to support it. See Hess v. Reg-Ellen Machine Tool Corp., 423 F.3d ...
Read More »2009AP001422 Siebert v. Wisconsin American Mutual Ins. Co.
Insurance Automobile policies; negligent entrustment An insurer is not liable for its insureds’ negligent entrustment of a vehicle if the driver was not negligent in his operation of the vehicle. “Bankert and Malone teach us that there is no coverage for Koehler’s alleged negligent entrustment of the vehicle to Raddatz because that act is not an independent concurrent cause of ...
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