Defense and Coverage - Can They Co-Exist?

Insurers, insurance defense counsel and coverage counsel are constantly faced with the dilemma of whether liability and coverage issues may co-exist in one claim file, what information and knowledge can be shared between the respective attorneys and claim-handlers, and whether the claims file should be “split.” When and how to “split” the file will necessarily impact the insured. Failing to split a file, when appropriate, or failing to correctly handle a split file, can impact both the liability and coverage issues, and result in ethical problems and bad faith exposure to the insurer…