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Insurance Carrier Intervention in Underlying Tort Cases: Options for Preserving Coverage-Related Facts

A live 90-minute CLE video webinar with interactive Q&A

This program is included with the Strafford CLE Pass. Click for more information.
This program is included with the Strafford All-Access Pass. Click for more information.

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

1:00pm-2:30pm EDT, 10:00am-11:30am PDT

Early Registration Discount Deadline, Friday, May 30, 2025

or call 1-800-926-7926
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This CLE webinar will consider intervention as an alternative to discovery in a declaratory judgment action or an insurer's own independent factual investigation into coverage, when the insurer contends coverage is questionable. The panel will address whether an insurer may intervene in an underlying lawsuit determining liability, what goals intervention may accomplish, best practices after an insurer intervenes, and why courts appear more open to intervention. The program will also review the risks insurers face when seeking to intervene and how to balance those against the risks of not doing so.

Description

Sometimes the facts that an insurance company believes will demonstrate that it has no duty to indemnify—that is, facts negating coverage for some or all the proffered claims—will be uncovered in discovery and determined in the underlying lawsuit over the policyholder's liability. Examples include where the underlying lawsuit will determine if the defendant is really an insured, whether the insured is vicariously liable for another's actions, whether the policyholder acted intentionally, or whether certain exclusions were triggered. If the insurance company waits to assert coverage defenses until that underlying lawsuit is resolved, whether through a verdict or settlement, the insurer may lose the ability to later assert facts critical to its coverage defenses. This is so even if it has issued a reservation of rights for filed a separate declaratory judgment action related to coverage.

One possible option is for the insurance company to seek to intervene in the underlying lawsuit pursuant to Federal Rule 24 and the various state counterparts. The number of jurisdictions that will not permit this is shrinking, but deciding whether to seek intervention and anticipating the indirect consequences of doing so remains complex. Insurance counsel have to be prepared to address all the reasons intervention is disfavored, understand the timing considerations, decide the goals of intervention and how to best achieve them, and consider the potential conflicts that are created and many other issues

Listen as our esteemed panel discusses when intervention is the preferred solution for preserving coverage defenses and offers practical approaches for avoiding unintended missteps.

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Outline

  1. Introduction: traditional approach
  2. Permissive intervention
    1. Reasons to intervene
    2. When to seek permissive intervention
    3. Potential pitfalls
    4. Proposed course of action for an insurer seeking intervention
  3. Possible outcomes
    1. Intervention not allowed
    2. Intervention allowed for insurance coverage purposes
    3. Intervention allowed for tort liability purposes

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues: 

  • What are the traditional rationales for not allowing insurers to intervene?
  • If intervention is denied, is the insurer still bound by factual determinations in the underlying case?
  • Can an insurer intervene for some but not all purposes?
  • Can intervention waive an insurer's right to control the defense?

Faculty

Henlin, Alexander
Alexander G. Henlin
Attorney
McAngus Goudelock & Courie

Mr. Henlin has 20 years of experience counseling and representing insurers and reinsurers in arbitrations,...  |  Read More

Thomas, Stephen L.
Stephen L. Thomas
Insurance, Policyholder
Thomas & Elliott

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 |  Read More
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You may pre-order a recording to listen at your convenience. Recordings are available 48 hours after the webinar. Strafford will process CLE credit for one person on each recording. All formats include course handouts.

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