Articles

September 13, 2021

AGLIC v. ACE: Anatomy of a Stowers Breach

Most states have a legal doctrine that incentivizes primary insurers to accept settlement demands by saddling them with extra contractual liability if they unreasonably reject a within limits demand. In Texas, it is called a Stowers duty. Texas law on Stowers often focuses on the necessary elements to trigger the duty. For example, the settlement...
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September 1, 2020

A Mediator’s Take on COVID-19: Part II

The Insurance Law Section of the Texas Bar Published my article, “A Mediator’s Take on COVID-19: Part II.” In this follow-up article I summarize recent decisions from around the country dealing with insureds’ attempts to recover lost profits from their property insurers. Insurers have generally convinced courts that policyholders have failed to demonstrate that COVID-19...
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April 28, 2020

Virtual Mediations: My Initial Impression: Positive Impressions of Settling Cases Online

COVID-19 has forced mediators to perform their services online. Just in the last month I have taken numerous webinars and reached out to my ADR colleagues to learn how to effectively mediate online and it is truly transforming the ADR field. After having conducted two successful online mediations, here are some initial takeaways: If back...
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April 28, 2020

A Mediator’s Take on COVID-19

The Insurance Law Section of the Texas Bar Published my article, “A Mediator’s Take on COVID-19.” I fully appreciate that right now policyholders and insurers are focused on crafting the winning coverage argument and not on settlement and, frankly, getting insurers to even consider paying some of these claims will be a challenge. That is...
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