Insurance Law Appellate Case Analysis Reveals Important Trends

Rivkin Radler Managing Partner Evan Krinick recently published an article in various Mealey’s publications that analyzes the decisions and results of 25 years’ worth of insurance cases in the New York Court of Appeals. Here are some of the highlights:

1. of the 187 insurance law cases decided by the Court, 161 were carrier v policyholder disputes; in those cases,  carriers prevailed in 55% of the cases;
2. automobile policies were involved in largest number of cases (50 cases) , followed by CGL policies (40 cases), with other policies far less involved; and
3. more than half the insurer-carrier disputes were decided unanimously, with only 10 cases decided by a 4-3 vote.

More conclusions can be found in the article.

In addition, Evan has compiled a digital compendium of these cases, based on a yearly article he has written since 1994, which reviews the significant insurance law decisions of the New York Court Appeals for the prior year. Looked at collectively, the articles discuss every significant insurance law decision by the Court of Appeals over the last quarter-century. The compendium offers indices for searching the compendium:

1. by case name;
2. by the term in which it was decided;
3. by the subject matter of the dispute (e.g., coverage, notice, etc.); and
4. by the type of policy ( e.g., CGL, auto, etc.).

The compendium can be downloaded here.

We hope you find this information useful, and our insurance attorneys are available, as always, to answer any questions you may have.