The Northwest Policyholder
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Does the Causation-Trigger Wording of an Additional Insured Endorsement Matter?
When two companies agree to work together, they will try to allocate the risk of something going wrong to the company that's in the best position to prevent that from happening. For example, in the construction industry a general contractor will usua...
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Insurance Coverage for Trade Secrets Claims
In a competitive industry trade secrets can be incredibly valuable. As a result, when trade secrets are stolen, litigation is common. Customer information, supply-chain strategies, marketing plans: all of these have been the subject of lawsuits, typi...
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Oregon Court: “Sudden & Accidental” Exception to Pollution Exclusion Judged from Policyholder's Perspective
One of the most critical issues in litigation over coverage for long-tail environmental liabilities is the application of the "qualified pollution exclusion" and in particular the carve-out for pollution that is "sudden and accidental." A new decisio...
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Insurance Coverage & the Cannabis Industry
Properly insuring cannabis businesses, and companies that are involved in the industry but that are not themselves regulated under state cannabis law, can be a tricky undertaking. I recently wrote an article for the Oregon State Bar Cannabis Law Se...
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Will Your Cyber Insurance Cover GDPR Fines & Penalties?
The GDPR, the European Union's Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), took effect on May 25. As my colleagues have written, the regulations apply to many US companies that hold data on EU customers, vendors, or employees. Businesses are sti...
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Allocation-Process Information Shielded by Mediation Privilege, not Available to Insurer: Wash. Fed. Court
In a decision with important implications for "long-tail" environmental contamination coverage claims in the Northwest, a federal court in Washington state has held that information from a confidential "allocation" proceeding in a Superfund site does...
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