Commercial Property policies cover the vital real and personal property of business. Over the past 25 years our insurance lawyers in Atlanta, Georgia have developed strong experience in handling all manner of commercial property risk, from specialized & unique property risk, to world-wide corporate blanket risks, to scheduled risks under standard and surplus lines policies providing a wide variety of property, business income and extra expense coverages. Over those past two decades insurance attorneys of the Firm have represented clients in property insurance coverage litigation arising out of building and structure loss, damage and loss of use cases which run the full gambit: loss or failure of every description due to the negligence of architects, engineers and contractors, building/structure/roof collapses, building/structure/mine earth and soil subsidence cases, fire and explosion cases from a multitude of causes in multiple industries, and all manner of property losses across the country from flood, earthquake, sink hole, wind/rain storm and hurricane. In the vast majority of these cases we address complex business interruption, extra expense, soft costs and bad faith coverage issues.
Over our many years of experience we have gained in-depth knowledge of many industries and have developed relationships with forensic, accounting, engineering and industry specific experts across the country that specialize in large commercial property loss litigation. We have also represent clients in large complex subrogation cases.
Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies are the backbone of insurance. Our insurance attorneys have in-depth experience in coverage litigation involving every layer of insurance from primary through very high excess and umbrella coverages across the broad spectrum of coverages and exclusions found in all types of CGL forms for all sizes and kinds of commercial operations. As coverage lawyers, we protect the interest of our clients by understanding the legal obligations created by the myriad of conditions, insuring terms, exclusions and endorsements of CGL policies which are constantly subject to change and place varying obligations upon both the insured and insurer. The complexity of coverage issues implicated in major liability litigation often involve numerous named and additional insureds, late notice issues, multiple insurers insuring the same risk under multiple types of liability coverages over multiple years of occurrences, where the exposure involves various layers of insurance, or where there are overlapping policy periods combining occurrence and claims-made coverages, all of which require the acumen of our highly experienced coverage attorneys. We have filed numerous declaratory judgment actions and litigated numerous other coverage actions and in the state and federal courts in over 20 states and we have an excellent trial record. Our wide range of experience in coverage analysis and insurance litigation involving CGL policies allows us to efficiently analyze claims regardless of the policy, industry or basis of liability involved.
Our firm is comprised of lawyers with significant experience, not only in representing insureds in coverage analysis and insurance litigation, but we are also often called upon to provide liability defense, which we address in another area of our Web page.
Inland Marine policies are used to cover a wide array of risks including building construction risk, large equipment risk or other personal property risk where the property is subject to movement. Inland Marine policies therefore can be seen associated with construction activities, crane operations, or other commercial equipment exposures. Perhaps the most significant area of this practice is insurance coverage related to Builders Risk policies for commercial structures such as high-rise buildings, warehouses, manufacturing plants, government buildings, structures and bridges. Builders Risk coverage applies during the course of construction and can be provided by standalone policies, large project OCIP program policies or provided as endorsed coverage on large corporation blanket property policies. Due to the increasing frequency of construction related litigation, both during and after construction, our lawyers are asked to handle an increasing number of Builders Risk coverage disputes and litigation. Those coverage litigations, where the allegations broadly assert damage during and after construction due to defective construction, can involve the interplay between Builders Risk policies, Commercial Property policies and Commercial General Liability policies. Our insurance attorneys have strong experience in all these types of coverage and insurance disputes. Our Builders Risk coverage litigation often involves the insurance rights, tort liability and contractual obligations of the owner, general contractor, sub-contractors, architects and engineers.
Our knowledge and familiarity with forensic engineering and construction loss analysis and industry construction practices gives us the ability to efficiently analyze the legal issues involved in Inland Marine policies and to bring in suitable experts with industry specific knowledge when needed. Significant loss of income and extra expense issues are commonly addressed in these cases. Because of our insurance and defense attorneys' in handling a variety of Builders Risk claims, we are in a position to understand and evaluate the unique issues that arise in Builders Risk coverage disputes.
During the early 1980's to the mid-1990's as insurance or defense counsel we were involved in the initial wave of environmental cases that were tried throughout the country as the result of Superfund clean-up actions. The insurance coverage litigation usually involved historical and long-term releases that triggered many years of commercial general liability (CGL) policies that had been issued to corporate America by insurers in the United States and abroad. Our lawyers have continued to defend environmental liability and handle CGL environmental coverage litigation involving varying types of specialized and time restricted environmental liability coverages.
These environmental litigation cases on the coverage side and defense side have involved long term industry contamination of land or water, unauthorized dumping, environmental releases from dump sites, pipe ruptures and pipe leaks, trailer tank accidents, underground tank leaks, fires and explosions and other industry occurrences causing either sudden or long term environmental releases resulting in property damage and claims of bodily injury. Serving as lead insurance counsel we have advised clients and represented them in litigation involving CGL policies issued over the last 50 years, modern claims-made environmental liability policies, environmental impairment policies and specialized manuscript environmental liability policies at the primary, excess and umbrella levels of insurance in both the state and federal courts.
Today D & O policies are essential to both profit and non-profit organizations of any significant size. Our insurance coverage attorneys have experience in the coverage issues associated with Side A, Side B and, when provided, Side C coverages of the D & O policy. As insurance lawyers we recognize that D & O policies often vary considerably from one insurer to another and often reflect manuscript changes for different size and structures of organizations. The law across the country is not well developed in the area of D & O policy interpretation/construction and therefore our depth of insurance and policy knowledge is necessary and beneficial in litigating coverage and providing legal advice on how courts are likely to rule on D & O coverage disputes.
Professional Malpractice or Errors and Omissions (E & O) coverage, also known as professional liability coverage, provides coverage to professionals for their negligence, errors and omissions in performing their professional services. The professionals covered include: lawyers, accountants, medical professionals, engineers, brokers, agents and architects. Our insurance attorneys understand that E & O policies often provide manuscript or frequently changing unique terms due to the nature of the professional insured and status of the insurance market for professionals. Our insurance lawyers have experience with the analysis of insurance coverage under both claims made and occurrence policies in this area and recognize and respect the serious personal and sometimes business political issues involved with insurance coverage of professionals.
Motor Truck Cargo liability insurance provides truckers liability coverage, during loading and unloading and during intrastate and interstate transit, for damage to property in their custody, care and control. Truckers can be held liable as either common, contract or private carriers, and there is both federal and state law governing a trucker's liability for damage to cargo. Our insurance lawyers and defense attorneys have had significant experience in handling Carmack cases that involve federal regulations and statutes governing trucker's liability for damage to property while in intrastate or interstate commerce. Our lawyers have also handled a number of intrastate cargo insurance claims and coverage cases involving claims against both warehousing and trucking entities for damaged, missing and stolen cargo. Additionally, because today cargo can move, in a single thru transit, by ocean, air and truck, our experience as attorneys in all those areas provides great benefit to our clients.
Ocean and Air Cargo Liability policies provide shippers insurance coverage for damage to property in their care, custody and control during shipment overseas or through the air. The ocean cargo cases can involve COGSA (Carriage of Goods at Sea Act) and other federal laws governing liability for ocean cargo damaged during transit on thru bills of lading. The air transport cargo cases involve a complex scheme of state, federal and international laws depending on the route of transport and may involve the Hague-Visby rules, Warsaw Convention, Montreal Protocols or other international conventions.
Therefore, in addition to our attorneys handling defense or insurance coverage cases involving property damage to goods traveling overland, our lawyers have defended ocean and air cargo losses and represented clients regarding the attendant liability and insurance coverage issues raised when loss occurs to goods in transit. We have a strong understanding of all facets of insurance related to the transportation industry and an in-depth knowledge of transportation industry customs.
Marine Liability policies include a range of coverages from Protection and Indemnity for vessels to Marine Terminal Operator's Liability for those operating the marine terminals and everything in between. Our insurance lawyers have experience with a wide variety of marine liability coverage forms, including but not limited to, Comprehensive Marine Liability, Tower's Liability, Terminal Operator's Liability, Stevedore's Liability, Ship Repairer's Liability, Charterer's Liability, Wharfinger's Liability, and Excess Marine Liability and Bumbershoot coverages. Our coverage counsel have experience with insurance coverage disputes arising from vessel sinking, vessel collisions and vessel allisions, damage resulting from vessel repair, longshore and harbor workers and Jones Act Seamen injuries at ports and onboard vessels while docked or in state and international waters, cargo losses, thru bill of lading cargo losses, marine environmental releases and a myriad of other marine liability exposures.
Marine Hull insurance is marine property damage coverage for a vessel's hull, appurtenances and machinery. Often these coverages are written on historical coverage forms that have interpretations dating back to the Courts of England. Our insurance coverage attorneys have handled a wide variety of insurance claims under hull policies, including those involving fire and explosion, latent defect, defective repairs, defective construction, scuttling, collision, accidents in loading and unloading and loss by the perils of the sea.
Fine Arts property policies often contain unique terms and insuring clauses that vary per insurer, and for the more significantly rare art exposures, the policies are often manuscript. Therefore, Fine Arts policies often contain terms, conditions and exclusions that are unique to the risk and/or property being insured, which are not often dealt with by the courts. Our attorneys' in-depth knowledge of insurance coverage law is applied on the unique coverage issues presented by claims under Fine Arts policies.
Warehouse Legal Liability insurance provides warehousemen liability coverage, during storage and warehouse operations, for damage to property in their custody, care and control. Usually, the policies require that the property be accepted by the warehouse under a written contract or a warehouse receipt. Warehousemen are exposed to claims of liability for, among other things, property that is physically damaged during the operation of the warehouse, for inventory shortages, mysterious disappearance and for theft of property while being stored or on the warehouse premises. Our firm has significant experience handling warehousing claims arising from theft, fire, flood, lack of refrigeration, roof collapse, missing inventory, mysterious disappearance, damage during handling, insufficient facility maintenance, trailer theft and a variety of other causes. We have experience not only with analyzing the insurance coverage related to warehousing risks but also the contractual agreements through which the warehousing services are provided and the limitations on recovery that can be associated with such warehousing agreements, bills of lading, warehouse receipts and invoices issued for the goods stored.