Insurance Law Services for Businesses
What We Offer
The Vedder Price Insurance Coverage Group offers businesses a three-tiered approach to effectively managing their risks through insurance and other risk-financing devices. This three-tiered approach begins with an audit of your company's insurance program to assess and correct any potential problem areas or uninsured risks. The second tier involves an audit of your company's current claim-handling operation and any overage positions asserted by your insurance carriers. The final tier involves the provision of effective and efficient advice and representation in any coverage disputes with your insurance carriers.
Insurance Program Audits
Insurance agent and brokers are qualified to market insurance. Their primary focus is to match your company's insurance needs with an appropriate product or group of products at an appropriate pricing level. They are not always trained to unearth areas of potential liability. The attorneys in the Vedder Price Insurance Coverage Group have litigated firsthand the disputes that inevitably arise after – often long after – a policy has been issued and the insured is facing a potential lack of coverage for a catastrophic loss or claim. Analyzing policies and insurance programs and detecting potential problems – before they happen – is second nature to us.
A Vedder Price Insurance Program Audit is uniquely tailored to each client's needs and desires, depending upon the size and nature of the client's business and the complexity of its insurance program as well as a number of other factors. Vedder Price's Insurance Law attorneys will review and analyze the client's risk exposure and insurance requirements, and provide an evaluation of whether the client's financial interests are being adequately protected. We will also provide solutions for minimizing or avoiding any potential problem areas or uninsured risks.
Insurance Claim Audits
Effective risk management does not end after an insurance policy is purchased and the premium is paid. On the contrary, it continues until the time first party property claims are paid and liability claims are either successfully defended, settled or paid. An Insurance Claims Audit can be performed separately or in conjunction with an Insurance Program Audit. Where the client has current pending insurance claims, either first party (i.e., claims made by the client for a loss to its own property) or third party (i.e., claims made by a third party for injury or property damage allegedly caused by the client), Vedder Price's Insurance Coverage attorneys will review and analyze the claims and any coverage positions asserted by the insurance company. We will then provide an evaluation of whether the claims and coverage issues are being handled in a manner that will maximize the client's insurance coverage and minimize potential liability exposure. In addition, we will provide guidance on the proper handling of future claims. Most importantly, we will provide solutions for minimizing or avoiding any potential problem areas.
Coverage Dispute Resolution
Insurance coverage is a specialized area of law. While the underlying principles of insurance policy interpretation are derived from contract law, courts have created special rules that are unique to insurance contracts. Further complicating matters, these special rules vary widely from state to state.
Having knowledgeable and experienced insurance coverage counsel on your side in a dispute with your insurance company is imperative. Unlike general practitioners, the attorneys in the Vedder Price Insurance Coverage Group specialize in resolving coverage disputes between insurance companies and their insureds. We know the arguments to make to enable you to obtain the coverage you bargained for, usually short of the need for litigation. In those situations where litigation is necessary, the attorneys in Vedder Price's Insurance Law Group are well prepared to provide effective and efficient advice and representation, having litigated coverage disputes in federal and state courts and participated in insurance coverage arbitrations and mediations across the country.
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