Insurance Claim Denials & Coverage Disputes

Eight people died on November 11 when a Brooklyn building collapsed into the excavation next door. If the same collapse happened in Chicago, the developer, contractor, and engineer would blame each other, and so would their insurers, over additional insured coverage, contractor exclusions, and refused settlements.

A denial letter is written to sound final, but it rarely is. A former insurer-side coverage litigator explains how insurers build, value, and deny claims, and how policyholders can approach a claim the same way.

When an insurer sues its own policyholder, it is often trying to avoid paying for a defense. Illinois law explains why insurers file these lawsuits, what they risk by refusing to defend, and how businesses can challenge them.

Moving a home into a trust or rentals into an LLC is sound planning, but the policies don’t move with the deed. When the owner on paper isn’t the insured on the policy, property, liability, and umbrella coverage can all break.

Most policyholders read a reservation of rights letter as bad news. In Illinois, a letter that is vague, silent about a conflict, or poorly timed can become the insurer’s weakest point, and the policyholder’s reply can decide whether that weakness survives.

A closed or acquired business can still be sued over what it did years earlier. Whether an old policy responds depends on occurrence versus claims-made coverage, tail and runoff provisions, and what the deal documents promised.