Insurance is often the largest asset a company has when it gets sued, and it is also one of the easiest to lose through late notice or a careless response to the carrier. We represent policyholders. When your company faces an IP lawsuit, a data breach, a shareholder claim, or a customer's demand over professional errors, we read your policies against the claim, tender to every carrier that might respond, and push for a defense and payment. When a carrier reserves rights, denies coverage, or refuses a reasonable settlement, we press the claim, negotiate, and litigate coverage and bad faith.
Policies That Respond To Claims
Commercial general liability policies cover bodily injury and property damage caused by an occurrence, and Coverage B covers personal and advertising injury, which can include disparagement, privacy violations, and copyright, trade dress, or slogan infringement in your advertisement. Standard ISO forms exclude most other IP claims, so policy wording controls. Cyber policies cover first-party breach costs, ransomware, and business interruption, plus third-party privacy liability. D&O policies protect directors, officers, and often the company against securities, regulatory, and governance claims. E&O and technology professional liability policies cover claims that your services or software failed. Many of these are claims-made policies with strict reporting windows.
Tender, Notice, And Reservations
Coverage is often won or lost early. Policies require notice of a claim, and claims-made policies often require reporting within the policy period or a short extended window. Many states, including Tennessee, apply a notice-prejudice rule to occurrence policies, but that protection is uneven for claims-made coverage. The duty to defend is broader than the duty to indemnify: in most states, an insurer must defend if the complaint alleges facts that could potentially fall within coverage. A reservation of rights letter lets the carrier defend while preserving its defenses, and in some states a resulting conflict of interest entitles you to independent counsel at the insurer's expense.
Pursuing The Claim
We start with a policy audit: every policy you had in force, including primary, excess, and umbrella layers, and older occurrence policies that may still respond. We prepare tenders that frame the claim in the language of coverage, and we answer reservation of rights letters point by point so that weak defenses are challenged on the record. We coordinate between defense counsel and the carrier, manage consent requirements for settlement, and track defense cost reimbursement and allocation between covered and uncovered claims. In IP and technology cases, we look for Coverage B advertising injury, technology E&O, and cyber coverage, since a single lawsuit can trigger more than one policy.
Coverage And Bad Faith Litigation
When a carrier denies a defense or refuses to pay a covered loss, we file declaratory judgment and breach of contract actions to establish coverage and recover defense costs and indemnity. When an insurer unreasonably refuses a settlement within limits, delays payment, or fails to investigate, many states allow bad faith claims for damages beyond the policy. Tennessee's statute, Tenn. Code Ann. 56-7-105, allows a penalty of up to 25 percent of the loss after a formal demand and a 60-day waiting period, and other states recognize common-law bad faith with broader remedies. We also handle appraisal and arbitration where policies require them. Disputes are handled with our Litigation practice.
Mistakes That Cost Coverage
Give notice of every claim, demand letter, subpoena, and regulatory inquiry to every potentially applicable carrier, even if you think the claim is weak or uncovered. Do not settle, admit liability, or incur defense costs you expect the carrier to pay without checking the policy's consent and cooperation terms. Read renewal applications carefully, since misstatements can void coverage, and know your retroactive dates when changing carriers. Keep copies of every policy, including older ones. Do not accept a denial letter as the final word; many denials rest on a broad reading of exclusions that courts construe narrowly against the insurer. And involve coverage counsel before mediation, not after.
