Counseling Insurers on Public Sector Coverage Issues
Lugenbuhl attorneys frequently provide advice and counseling regarding insurance coverage under policies of insurance, including both occurrence-based and claims-made policies, issued to municipalities, counties, city, parish or county and other local governments. Our counseling services include evaluating policy language, drafting insurance coverage opinions, and drafting reservation-of-rights letters on behalf of insurers.
Lugenbuhl regularly counsels insurers on a variety of public-sector liability coverage issues, including such claims as:
- Takings and expropriation
- Inverse-condemnation
- Public-officials liability
- Public-sector negligence
- Law-enforcement-liability
- Constitutional claims asserted under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
Representative Examples of Our Counseling Experience
The many issues for which Lugenbuhl has provided counseling include:
- Whether a city employee or elected official is a protected person under the terms of the policy
- The applicability of a wide variety of exclusions, including false material, complaint-or-enforcement action, and intentional act
- The consequences of a policyholder providing late notice of a loss, including its effect on the insurer’s duty to reimburse pretender defense costs or indemnify the insured
- Whether failure to properly maintain an easement resulting in erosion and expansion of the easement boundaries constitutes “property damage” within the meaning of a policy
- Whether a board or commission is an additional insured under a policy issued to a parish or county government
- Contribution and solidary liability issues
The Litigation Skill and Broad Experience Insurers Demand
We have extensive experience representing insurers in litigation involving public-sector insurance policy coverage issues. Our litigation team regularly defends insurers against coverage claims brought by both policyholders and third-party claimants and files declaratory-judgment actions against policyholders and third-party claimants on behalf of insurers. Some representative examples of the wide variety of the public-sector insurance claims and issues that Lugenbuhl litigates include:
- Excessive-use-of-force claims asserted against city and parish/county governments and police officers
- Denial-of-substantive-due-process and detrimental-reliance claims asserted against a city government and planning commission
- Claim by local-government-elected official for indemnity and reimbursement of defense costs arising out of ethics charges brought against the official
- Negligence claims brought by landowners against parish police jury and port commission arising out of alleged failure to maintain the boundaries of an easement for a canal
- Claim for failure to defend and indemnify by former police officer against city government, parish district attorney, city police department, and insurer arising out of civil judgment against the officer for false arrest and malicious prosecution
- Takings-and-inverse-condemnation claims against city and parish governments
- Counseling on all public sector liability issues
- Advising on occurrence-based policies and claims-made policies
- Determining the protection status of employees and elected officials
- Determining the status of additional insureds
- Determining the applicability of exclusions
- Evaluating policy language
- Drafting insurance coverage opinions
- Drafting reservation-of-rights letters
