Will 1st Anniversary of COVID-19 Shutdowns Spur New Wave of COVID Lawsuits?
The upcoming anniversary of COVID-19 shutdown orders may reveal whether a significant number of policyholders have been waiting on the sidelines before suing their insurers for business-interruption losses.
Holding off on legal action may make sense, as insurers are winning four out of five initial trial court rulings. Insurers are likely to be more willing to negotiate if they start losing, the thinking goes.
On the other hand, attorneys have been advising policyholders to carefully read their commercial property policies and look for notice-of-loss and suit-limitation provisions.
The first statewide COVID-19 stay-at-home order was imposed on March 19 by California. State, county and city orders followed around the nation in the ensuing few weeks.
Shakespeare Theatre Company Hosts Its Annual Mock Trial
Audiences are invited to hear a mock appellate argument based on a legal issue arising out of a re-imagined plot point of The Winter s Tale.by BWW News Desk
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez! Shakespeare Theatre Company s annual Mock Trial, the funniest, most entertaining event in Washington (Roll Call) is now in session-virtually. On March 11, at 7:30 p.m. ET, audiences are invited to hear a mock appellate argument before a panel of judges, based on a legal issue arising out of a re-imagined plot point of The Winter s Tale. Audiences will be able to watch the proceedings online and even cast their own judgment before the panel renders their verdict.
A conversation with Stacey Abrams The Georgia politician sat down with Ben Jealous, visiting scholar and former NAACP leader, to discuss topics from gerrymandering to romance novels in a virtual discussion. Stacey Abrams and Ben Jealous during their virtual talk at Penn.
After Stacey Abrams lost the 2018 Georgia governor’s race, she said she was “the saddest I’ve ever been and the most worthless I’ve ever felt.” She gave herself 10 days to grieve, watch TV, feel depressed and mad, and then she transformed those emotions into action.
“Ambition doesn’t allow itself to be rewarded by not getting what you want. Sometimes it’s an opportunity to expand how you think about it, or understand what you need to do differently,” she told the virtual audience in a conversation at Penn. “I got through those bouts by remembering why I do it, remembering my job isn’t to win; it is to move forward.”
Judge Advances Multidistrict COVID Business Interruption Case Against Society Insurance
A federal judge denied Society Insurance’s motions to dismiss three “bellwether” lawsuits filed by hospitality businesses that were denied coverage for revenue lost because of COVID-19 public health orders.
U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang in Chicago, who was assigned a consolidated case by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, rejected an argument that government orders that restricted the use of commercial property could not be considered a direct physical loss covered by the policies. None of the three insurance policies contained a virus exclusion, as most commercial property policies do.