Viruses and the diseases they cause often have different names. The current global pandemic which has stricken much of the planet is no exception. Although most commonly referred to as COVID-19 (technically the illness caused by the virus), this pandemic also can be referred to as SARS-CoV-2 (“severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2” — the…
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Workers’ compensation carriers and liability insurers have been in a state of high anxiety regarding the inevitable insurance claims which will result from employees contracting COVID-19 once businesses begin to reopen and employees all return to life as usual. At least in California, insurers received a little clarity in the form of Governor Gavin Newson’s…
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Litigation is rarely cheap, but it is often necessary. Nowhere is this truer than in the area of insurance subrogation, where those who resist paying subrogation claims assume that insurance companies are loath to pull the trigger and file suit and will, therefore, never pay full value on subrogation claims with even the clearest liability…
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Given the financial impact of COVID-19 on the country and world, both federal and local governments have scrambled to impose new protections for consumers. Federal protections have been put in place to prevent the collection of both principal and interest on certain federally-held student loans[1], as well as relief from foreclosure for many federally-backed mortgage…
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Attorney James Busenlener will be presenting a live one-hour webinar on Government Done Me Wrong: Tort Claims Against Local, State and Federal Authority on May 13, 2020 @ 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. (CDT). Put down those pitchforks, because there are established procedures for suing local, state, and federal governmental systems when you have paid insurance…
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Insurance companies are no dummies. The world’s largest insurance companies learned important lessons following previous worldwide health crises. Since the 2003 SARS pandemic, they have tightened up their policies and carefully crafted policy language excluding communicable diseases. They have anticipated the avalanche of business interruption claims which flow from worldwide catastrophes such as the Coronavirus…
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There is an ongoing debate in the insurance field over whether a liability insurer has a duty to reveal its policy limits to a third-party claimant even before a lawsuit is filed. One approach—supported by the trial lawyers—presupposes that knowledge of the defendant’s insurance policy limits will facilitate settlement and avoid needless litigation which may…
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Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer, S.C. (“MWL”) is pleased to welcome seasoned trial lawyer Sarah “Sally” Fry Bruch to the firm as a senior litigating associate. Sally brings with her a wealth of insurance and general litigation experience to MWL’s Hartford, Wisconsin office. Sally has almost three decades of experience having worked as a litigator for…
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As millions sit at home and are able to continue working somewhat effectively thanks to the Internet, email, VPN’s, and other miracles of internet and computer science, many of us still recall the “good ole’ days” of conducting business with the help of an IBM Selectric typewriter, dictating or typing letters, buying stamps, and licking…
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The Michigan Legislature passed no-fault auto insurance laws in 1973 and like a T-Rex guarding its bone, has been holding on to this dysfunctional approach to auto insurance ever since. Instead of running away completely from the problem and joining states which have enjoyed lower auto insurance premiums after abandoning the failed no-fault experiment, Michigan…
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