According to the Washington Supreme Court, lawyers who represent insurance companies in coverage litigation may also defend insureds of those same companies in civil litigation. In its decision, however, the court cautioned that lawyers who represent both insurers and their…
Now in its 28th year, the Montrose Chemical Corporation coverage litigation continues to be a rich source of coverage law in California. Late last week, in what is at least the fifth published appellate decision in this long-running saga, the…
After reading a news story about two ships that collided miles off the Japanese coast with significant damage and loss of life, my brother wrote to me: "How the hell do two ships collide at sea?" Unfortunately, it is not…
On July 5, 2017, while the rest of the Country was recovering from the haze of fireworks, Washington became the fifth State in the nation to require paid family and medical leave for employees. Though the law will not take…
Judges who have spent significant time at sea are few and far between. Nonetheless, they set high standards for seafarers and the carriers who employ them. Because of these high standards, judges do not allow carriers to avoid liability for…
Almost a year ago we reported on the California Supreme Court's substantial expansion of jurisdiction over claims by non-resident plaintiffs against non-resident defendants ("Back to the Future for California Jurisprudence"). Yesterday, in good news for defendants and their insurers, the…
Oregon employers are facing new obligations and areas of potentially significant liability with Governor Kate Brown's June 1, 2017, enactment of the Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017 (Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017 (HB 2005)). Though the title of…
In response to Golden Oldies (Pacific Maritime Magazine, March 2017), a reader asked how admiralty lawyers find old cases. She imagined law clerks digging through dusty books. That was the old method. With the computer age came the digitization of…
The Washington Supreme Court significantly limited the applicability of an absolute pollution exclusion by application of the efficient proximate cause rule, which had not previously been applied to third-party coverage disputes. Moreover, the Court held as a matter of law…
On April 20, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued another in a string of recent decisions from the appellate court that rejected insurers' coverage defenses based on the contractual known loss provision. In Alkemade v.…