34th Annual ABA Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Program

This year’s 34th Annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee (ICLC) Mid-Year Program will take place in beautiful La Jolla, California. With panel and small-group presentations from policyholder and carrier-side counsel, insurance brokers, authors, and leading academics, you’ll gain invaluable insights and fresh perspectives into the latest trends and innovations in the coverage arena. JAMS neutral Andrew Nadolna will join the panel discussion, “Trigger Happy: How Mass Tort Mechanics Can Ignite—or Dampen—Coverage.” See more information about the panel below. 

“Trigger Happy: How Mass Tort Mechanics Can Ignite—or Dampen—Coverage”
Friday, February 20 | 3:25 PM – 4:40 PM

This panel will examine how coverage analysis shifts when defending and resolving mass torts in class actions compared to federal MDLs. On the defense side, we will unpack how aggregation and the “number of occurrences” can differ markedly between a single, unified class case and a heterogeneous MDL docket; how that divergence drives duty-to-defend obligations and the allocation of defense costs across covered and uncovered work; and how timing, notice, and prior knowledge/prior litigation issues are heightened by rolling MDL filings versus a single class complaint. On the settlement front, the discussion will compare class settlements—often court approved with common funds or QSFs—to MDL inventory deals using individualized matrices, and the resulting consent, cooperation, and documentation challenges that affect insurer participation and bad faith risk.

Panelists: 

• Bradley Dlatt, Lathrop GPM
• Andrew Nadolna, JAMS
• Joe Royster, Weber Gallagher LLP
• Jared Zygmunt, Director - Disputes, Claims, & Investigations