INSURANCE
Since its founding in 1927, Long & Levit LLP
has been one of the nation’s leading firms providing legal
services to the insurance industry. Our expertise is reflected in
our insurance practice groups:
¨ Coverage Counseling and Litigation
¨ First Party Property
¨ Subrogation
Our work on behalf of insurers is multifaceted.
We advise clients before litigation begins by offering coverage,
claims and liability analyses. We strive to avoid litigation or,
if that is not possible, to narrow its scope.
Our trial experience in the insurance field
rivals that of even the largest law firms in the nation. Our trial
and appellate work has resulted in some of the industry’s
best-known judicial opinions.
Liability Insurance Coverage
Counseling & Litigation
Long & Levit LLP’s liability insurance
coverage litigation and counseling experience is as broad as the
field itself. We have written thousands of coverage opinions on
almost every type of liability policy, including primary
commercial liability, excess liability, umbrella, professional
errors and omissions and entertainment errors and omissions. We
have litigated and tried countless coverage cases and have
counseled and arbitrated the resolution of numerous reinsurance
disputes.
We regularly counsel insurers on the duty to
defend and indemnify in the context of bodily injury and property
damage, construction defect, employment practices liability,
advertising injury, business torts and environmental coverage. We
also are helping construct legal precedents in emerging areas of
law, including high-tech and internet issues.
Long & Levit likewise has extensive
experience in the areas of excess-primary relationships, drop-down
provisions, and allocation and contribution between and among
multiple horizontal primary and excess carriers. Our group has
served as national coordinating counsel for major, national
insurers on complex matters such as advertising injury,
environmental coverage and bad faith.
The group not only provides extensive counseling
on coverage and bad faith prevention, but also has a proven track
record of successfully representing insurers in complex insurance
coverage litigation through trial and appeal. We are particularly
proud of our record of trying many bad faith cases successfully to
verdict and frequently represent insurers before courts of
appeal.
Our partners occupy prominent positions in
national insurance-related organizations, such as the Defense
Research Institute, the American Bar Association and the
Association of Professional Insurance Women, and we publish
articles and speak frequently on all areas of liability coverage
and bad faith.
Our commitment to protecting our clients has led
us to provide extensive training services, including conducting
internal reviews of company policies, procedures and claims
manuals, and providing custom seminars directed to the client’s
specific needs, including Fair Claims Practices Acts and SIU
Compliance.
Our insurance coverage group has two basic
missions:
First, when giving advice on coverage or claim
handling, to provide prompt, clean and concise coverage opinions
that objectively and accurately interpret the contract under
applicable law.
Second, when handling litigation, to devote all
of our knowledge, experience and creativity to achieving our
client’s objective in the fastest and most economical way,
whether by settlement, trial or dispositive motion.
To accomplish our mission, we will do the
following:
Acknowledge all new files within 24 hours.
Staff matters according to experience and client
need.
Provide initial evaluations within 30 working
days of receipt of file materials or an explanation why the
evaluation cannot be provided.
Calendar and advise the client of all important
dates under California Insurance Regulations to ensure
compliance.
Utilize prior work product and legal research
without additional billing.
Comply with all agreed-upon billing and
reporting guidelines of the client.
We invite you to contact us to discuss whether
our experience and philosophy can help your company in the
resolution of its liability claims and lawsuits. References from
specific claims personnel, independent adjustors, mediators,
lawyers and judges are available upon request.
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Litigation
First Party Property
The Long & Levit LLP Property Insurance
Group handles a wide variety of first party property issues. The
group's attorneys have been faculty members at the National
Forum, panelists at the Property Loss Research Bureau, speakers
on numerous DRI and TIPS Property Insurance Law Committee
programs and have appeared before local, national and
international claims organizations. They have published dozens
of articles and book chapters dealing with property insurance
law and are regularly invited by insurance companies to conduct
training sessions on claims handling. Some of the training
programs include:
The Do's and Don'ts of Claim Handling
The Deposition of a Claims Person
The Use of Examination Under Oath
Fraud and Arson Investigation
Good Faith Claims Handling
Contamination Issues
Defending Against Allegations of Bad Faith
Mock Trials
Our lawyers strive to provide our clients with
opinions that uphold the meaning of the contract, as interpreted
by applicable courts, and are fair to the insured, the company
and its other policyholders. We recognize the importance of
providing advice which is consistent with the Fair Claims
Practices Act and all applicable claim handling
regulations.
As part of its client service philosophy, the
group strives to fulfill the following commitments:
Acknowledge all new files within 24
hours.
Use e-mail and Intranet to communicate with
clients where requested.
Return all phone calls and e-mail from clients
within 24 hours.
Provide initial evaluations within ten working
days of the receipt of file materials or indicate why such
initial evaluations cannot be rendered in that time frame.
Report on all examinations under oath within
seven working days.
Calendar and advise the client of all
important dates under the California Insurance Regulations to
insure full compliance.
Utilize prior work product and legal research
without additional billing.
Comply with all agreed-upon billing and
reporting guidelines by client company.
The following is a list of representative
clients for whom Long & Levit has handled first party
property matters:
Aetna
Alliance
California Fair Plan
California Insurance Group
Chicago Insurance Company
Chubb
CNA
CIGNA
CSAA
General Accident
Liberty Mutual
Prudential
Reliance
RLI
St. Paul
TDIC
The Travelers
State Farm
USAA
Zurich
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For more than 60 years, Long & Levit LLP
has provided special expertise in the handling of subrogation
matters, including arson and other claims involving fraud. The
firm’s depth and extensive experience in the investigation and
litigation of these claims enables us to evaluate subrogation
potential and prosecute those claims to swift recovery.
Our experience in handling large commercial
cases enables us to prosecute efficiently and successfully
smaller subrogation actions under personal lines policies, such
as actions against developers, contractors and subcontractors
for earth movement or defective workmanship.
Members of the group have served as officers
on the Insurance Committee of the Federation of Insurance and
Defense Counsel, the Property Claims Association of the
Pacific, and the Tort and Insurance Practice Section of the
American Bar Association.
Over the
last quarter-century, Long & Levit has represented numerous
insurance carriers in subrogation matters, including CNA, the
Insurance Company of North America (CIGNA/INA), Lloyd’s of
London, Fireman’s Fund, National Union Insurance Company,
Factory Mutual Engineering, the Chubb Group of Insurance
Companies, Continental Insurance Company, Houston General
Insurance Company, St. Paul Insurance Company, American Home
Insurance Company, the Oil Insurance Association, Kemper
Insurance Group, Tokyo Marine Insurance Company and the
California FAIR Plan Association.
Long & Levit has successfully represented
clients in litigation arising out of the One Market Plaza PCB
loss, the First Interstate Bank fire in Los Angeles and the
Union Bank Building fire in Los Angeles, as well as numerous
other multi-million dollar losses. Over the years, Long &
Levit has developed a reliable group of experts in all the major
disciplines and prides itself on its ability to evaluate quickly
the merits of a subrogation action and to bring the case to a
favorable conclusion promptly and efficiently.
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