Insured Contracts: When the Carrier Gets It Wrong
Insured Contract Coverage, Excess Judgments, and Extra-Contractual Exposure The first two installments in this series were about coverage that exists. Part One located the insured contract provision in the Commercial General Liability (“CGL”), commercial…
Process Is Proof: Claims-Handling Discovery in Missouri First-Party UM/UIM Cases
Why the insurer’s “we just valued it differently” defense rarely survives a record built piece by piece. The most effective tactic the defense has in a first-party uninsured or underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) case is not about the wreck or the medicine.…
When the Carrier Breaches First: Answering Cooperation and Consent Defenses
The insured’s refusal to accept a belated defense is not non-cooperation — it is the privileged consequence of the insurer’s first material breach. Introduction A litany of denials and affirmative defenses commonly follows the filing of an insurance…
Personal Counsel for the Defended Policyholder
When coverage is intact and the insurer is defending, the insured still has interests no one in the defense triangle is positioned to protect. Introduction Much of the writing on personal or independent counsel for an insured assumes a coverage fight:…
An Insurance Agent’s Role:
Agency, Authority, and the Duty to Transmit Premiums Under Missouri Law Key Takeaways I. Introduction When a Missouri consumer walks into an office with an insurance company’s name on the door, hands over a premium check, and walks out expecting…
Vexatious Refusal to Pay a UM Claim in Missouri: Evidence of Settlement Offers & What Qureshi v. American Family Teaches About Building the Vexatious Case from Investigation Through Verdict
How an inadequate claims investigation, a lowball settlement offer, and an insurer’s strategic refusal to answer deposition questions combined to sustain a jury verdict for vexatious refusal under § 375.420 RSMo Missouri Injury & Insurance…
The Missouri Bad Faith Timeline: From Tender to Excess Judgment
A chronological practitioner’s guide to how a Missouri bad faith failure to settle case develops — the elements, the key decision points, what the insurer must do at each stage, and what happens when it does not Missouri Injury & Insurance…
Proving Your Uninsured Motorist Claim in Missouri:The Nine Essential Elements Every Claimant Must Establish
A practitioner’s guide to the elements of proof required to recover under Missouri’s uninsured motorist statute, § 379.203 RSMo Missouri Injury & Insurance Law | missouriinjuryandinsurancelaw.com Introduction When a Missouri motorist is injured by…
Proving the Insurer’s Breach of Fiduciary Duty in Missouri:A Discovery and Deposition Practice Guide
Who to depose, what to demand, and how to build the record that proves bad faith from the inside out Missouri Injury & Insurance Law | missouriinjuryandinsurancelaw.com Missouri Injury & Insurance…
The Liability Insurer’s Fiduciary Duty in Missouri:Utmost Good Faith and the Control of Defense
What Zumwalt established in 1950 and why it still defines the insurer-insured relationship today Missouri Injury & Insurance Law | missouriinjuryandinsurancelaw.com Introduction Missouri has long recognized that the relationship between a liability…