RumbergerKirk has extensive experience in insurance coverage litigation and counseling in the areas of personal lines; commercial lines; and life, health and disability. We have a team of attorneys to address the myriad of issues that clients, including many of the nation’s largest insurance carriers, face in the realm of insurance litigation, coverage, and bad faith.
We handle matters including significant policy issues, statutory compliance issues, class actions, SIU issues, and challenges to company processes and initiatives. Our team consists of seasoned trial lawyers who understand the complexities of insurance litigation and the detrimental effect bad faith claims can have on a client’s business and the potential exposure for damages. In addition, we handle appeals in both state and federal courts, as well as before the Supreme Court of Florida and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
We assist clients in appellate matters such as consultation at the trial level, appeals of insurance coverage and bad faith suits, and amicus curiae briefing on those issues that affect the industry as a whole.
Our understanding of and ability to handle the complexities of insurance and bad faith litigation allow us to team with clients to make positive industry changes. In addition to filing amicus curia briefs on behalf of our clients and industry groups, we have also teamed with our clients to select “test cases” on important issues. We have taken these “test cases” from the trial level to the Florida Supreme Court, obtaining favorable rulings that not only benefit our client but the industry as a whole.
Our attorneys also assist trial lawyers throughout all phases of litigation, including drafting motions and responses, preserving error for appeal, and formulating trial strategy with the potential for a future appeal in mind. We are also available to represent our clients’ interests as amicus curiae when they are not parties to a potentially precedent setting appellate case.
Our representation of our insurance clients includes successful appeals in both state and federal courts, as well as before the Supreme Court of Florida and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
We represent major insurance companies in class actions involving important issues concerning the legality of certain insurance practices or the meaning of critical provisions of insurance policies. We have a successful track record in preemptively dismissing numerous class actions by prevailing on standing issues or establishing as a threshold matter that the class representative’s claims do not state a cause of action.
We work with insurance companies and their Special Investigations Units (SIU) in the investigation and litigation of fraudulent insurance claims. We assist clients at every stage of a claim from the initial report of loss to resolution. Our attorneys have experience working claims involving staged accidents, intentional destruction of insured property by or on behalf of an insured, fraudulent theft losses, exaggeration of the cause, medical payments coverage claims, and extent of injuries.
The firm has an active practice in Florida and Alabama as counsel to life and disability insurers. Serving as panel counsel for major life and disability carriers, the firm handles litigation arising from claims under these policies, in both ERISA and non-ERISA contexts. In the disability arena, our work involves defending company or administrator decisions to deny or terminate disability benefits. Similarly, for the life insurance industry we handle litigation arising from the following:
The firm regularly represents commercial general liability insurers in connection with advice regarding coverage obligations and defending and prosecuting declaratory judgment, breach of contract, rescission, and other insurance related actions.