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Warner Norcross + Judd LLP is a corporate law firm with over 230 attorneys serving clients in nine offices throughout Michigan. Among the largest law firms in Michigan, Warner works in virtually all areas of business law.

Michigan Law Firm - Warner Norcross + Judd LLP

Warner's Insurance Practice Group includes a broad range of attorneys with decades of experience assisting clients with insurance matters. Our team includes several attorneys who once represented insurance companies and offer an insider's perspective for how insurance companies handle and litigate claims. This breadth of experience allows us to provide efficient, practical and cutting-edge representation in a wide variety of insurance matters, including evaluating and procuring policy coverage for individuals and businesses and pursuing coverage claims on behalf of policyholders.

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Insurance claims can often be a minefield. What appears to be a simple claim can quickly morph into a bewildering maze of exclusionary language, trigger theories, allocation problems and reservations of rights. These are concepts the insurance company may use to minimize its own exposure and to deny coverage, if possible. A client not familiar with these concepts may find its claims being denied, despite having paid thousands of dollars in premiums.

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Our insurance attorneys have experience with a wide range of insurance coverage disputes, allowing them to quickly and effectively identify the weaknesses in the insurance company’s position. This knowledge and experience allows us to resolve many coverage disputes without litigation, saving our clients thousands of dollars in litigation costs.

But when negotiations are not effective, our insurance team is ready and willing to vindicate our clients' claims in court. We have litigated dozens of the most complicated insurance coverage actions, including long-tail environmental exposure cases with policies and losses going back several decades. Our insurance attorneys are accomplished trial and appellate litigators who have experience with virtually every type of policy on the market today, including property, commercial general liability, directors and officers liability, errors and omissions, business interruption, key man, employment practices liability, malpractice, products liability, life and health insurance and no-fault.

Our insurance litigation experience includes:

Nationwide litigation of coverage disputes involving tens of millions of dollars, including declaratory judgment actions, bad faith claims, and other coverage matters

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Investigating and providing coverage opinions on a wide variety of insurance claims

Successful settlement of coverage disputes before and after the commencement of litigation

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Several members of our insurance team are also members of the WN&amp;J Appellate Practice Group and regularly handle insurance appeals in state and federal courts, sometimes involving groundbreaking issues. This means we offer the highest quality representation for insurance appellate matters, whether the goal is to preserve a lower-court victory or get an unfavorable result overturned on appeal.

Dispute resolution is not the only area where our insurance attorneys add value. We offer a wide range of insurance counseling services to ensure our clients have the coverage necessary to manage the risks associated with their businesses. These services include, among other things:

Reviewing and eliminating gaps in coverage

Identifying areas of redundancy or over-coverage and suggesting ways to improve

Negotiating with brokers and issuers during renewals

Identifying and evaluating the client's reporting and disclosure obligations under liability policies

Monitoring the status of deductibles, retentions and policy limits

Reviewing certificates of insurance and underlying policies to ensure our clients have the intended coverage

Few, if any, Michigan firms can match the depth and breadth of Warner’s Insurance Practice team. For more information or a consultation, please contact our Insurance Practice Group Chair, Jason Byrne, at 616.752.2263or <a href="mailto:jbyrne@wnj.com">jbryne@wnj.com</a>.

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In the Know: Warner's Litigation Spotlight

Litigation Strengths: Subject Matter Expertise

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Beyond the Policy: A Full-day Insurance Coverage Program

Insurance Litigation Sub-Practice cropped

Insurance

Warner Selected as USLAW NETWORK Member Firm

Two Warner Partners Named to Crain’s 2023 Notable West Michigan Lawyers

Charles N. Ash Appointed to Michigan Colleges Alliance Board of Trustees

Carly Zagaroli Appointed to Michigan Women Forward West Michigan Advisory Council

Partner

Charles N. Ash Jr.

Business Development Executive

Elizabeth “Liz” Burnson

Jason L. Byrne

Associate

Danica N. Hosaka

Katrin B. Kelley

Kristina M. Munsters

Samuel D. “Sam” Poortenga

Carly A. Zagaroli

Warner represented an insurance settlements company in a dispute over an individual&rsquo;s sale of life insurance policies. We obtained a dismissal of the complaint through an initial dismissal motion.
Harahan v. FairMarket Life Settlements Corp., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82248

Litigation - Insurance

Litigation – Sale of Life Insurance Policies

Warner served as appellate Counsel, successfully defending a class action brought against an insurer, claiming violations of insurance policies.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
The Michigan Supreme Court adopted an insurance policy interpretation advanced by Warner and reversed the lower courts&#8217; judgment against our client. 
Ile v. Foremost Ins. Co., 493 Mich. 915; 823 NW2d 426 (2012)

Insurance – Policy Interpretation

Warner provided successful amicus curiae representation in the Michigan Supreme Court&#8217;s decision to overrule longstanding line of authority denying statutory prejudgment interest during interlocutory appeal periods, resulting in a $7 million benefit to our client.
Morales v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 672 N.W.2d 849 (Mich. 2003)

Litigation – Prejudgment Interest

As amicus curiae, successfully persuaded the Michigan Supreme Court to reverse the court of appeals and hold that a plaintiff who suffers successive injuries has the burden of proving a current injury was caused by the subject accident, not an independent occurrence.
Benefiel v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., 759 N.W.2d 814 (Mich. 2008):&nbsp;

Litigation

Amicus Curiae in Insurance Coverage Litigation

Warner attorneys obtained a seven-figure insurance settlement for our client from an insurance company who initially denied them coverage for underlying litigation, by focusing on an obscure provision in the commercial general liability insurance policy.

Insurance Coverage Dispute

Represented an insurance settlements company in dispute over an individual’s sale of life insurance policies, obtaining dismissal of the complaint through an initial dismissal motion. Harahan v. FairMarket Life Settlements Corp., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82248

Dispute Over Sale of Life Insurance Policy

Warner was the successful trial counsel for Consumers Energy in massive coverage litigation against Lloyd&rsquo;s of London and a London market insurer.

Consumers Energy Insurance Litigation

Warner represented the Michigan County Road Commission Self-Insurance Pool and the County Road Association in persuading the court to grant leave to appeal the issue of MDOT&rsquo;s governmental immunity for personal injury on a highway.
Yono v. Michigan Dep&rsquo;t of Transportation, 864 N.W.2d 142 (Mich. 2015):&nbsp;

MI Department of Transportation – Personal Injury Litigation

Warner represented Southern-Owners Insurance in persuading the Eleventh Circuit to overrule its earlier misinterpretation of an exclusion in the standard Hired Auto and Non-owned Auto Endorsement in Southern-Owners&rsquo; corporate general-liability insurance policy.
Southern-Owners Ins. Co. v. Moore, No. 14-15386, _ F.3d _ (11th Cir. 2017):&nbsp;

Insurance Company Case Over Policy Exclusion

Warner obtained judgment in federal court that a Chinese insurance company was obligated to defend major American manufacturer in products liability action arising out of a Chinese-supplied component part.
Whirlpool Corporation&nbsp;v China Pacific Insurance Company&nbsp;(Western District of Michigan, 2011).

Judgment in Federal Court on Insurance Coverage for Product Liability Action

Warner obtained judgment in federal court that a Chinese insurance company was obligated to defend a major American manufacturer in products liability action arising out of a Chinese-supplied component part.
Whirlpool Corporation&nbsp;v China Pacific Insurance Company&nbsp;(Western District of Michigan, 2011).

Manufacturing Counsel in Cross-Border Insurance Litigation

Warner represented Owners Insurance in successfully reducing a $2.4 million judgment by $1.4 million through creative settlement negotiations and reversal of a punitive-damages award.
Lance v. Owners Insurance Co., No. E2015-00274-COA-R3-CV, 2016 WL 3092818 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2016)

Reduction of Judgment Against Insurance Company

Warner served as trial counsel for Hart &amp; Cooley, Inc., of Holland, Michigan, in a $9 million insurance coverage dispute against Wausau Insurance Companies arising from flood damage.

$9 Million in Flood Damage Claim Dispute

We represented Alticor Inc. and Amway Corp. in a years&rsquo; long fight with its insurance company regarding coverage for a lawsuit regarding copyright infringement claims.
The underlying case involved all of the major record companies in the United States bringing claims against our client for copyright infringement. The insurers denied coverage and left our client to defend the claims on its own, which was very costly.
After the underlying copyright case was resolved, our client sued its insurers for coverage. The insurers continued to deny coverage and aggressively defended the case.
Ultimately, the court granted our motion for summary judgment and awarded our clients over $24 million.

Pursuing Insurance Coverage for IP Litigation after Denial of Coverage

Warner served as counsel for title insurance company and obtained a very favorable settlement for our client. The case was a multimillion-dollar class action alleging the company&rsquo;s rate structure violated federal law.

Litigation - Class Action

Class Action Regarding Title Insurance Company

MI Federal Court Allows Salon’s Covid-19 Insurance Case to Proceed in Court Under Communicable Disease Provision

Supreme Court Decisions Leave Employers Guessing

UPDATE: Telehealth in a Changing World – Mitigating Risks

Litigation and Dispute Resolution

Warner is pleased to introduce the first video in a new vlog series&nbsp;In the Know: Warner’s Litigation Spotlight&nbsp;featuring the firm’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group and its 21 sub-practice groups. We kick off today’s inaugural vlog with Partner Amanda Fielder, the chair of the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group, who speaks to the first of four pillars&nbsp;that best describes the practice group. She expresses what being a&nbsp;subject matter expert&nbsp;means for Warner attorneys, and how our expertise directly impacts clients today, tomorrow and years down the road. She also provides insight into the multiple supporting litigation sub-practice groups and how these specialty groups contribute to overall client satisfaction and best-in-class service.



To learn more about Warner’s litigation subject matter expertise, view the video below.

Insurance Litigation

Warner Norcross + Judd LLP is responsible for the contents of our advertising and this website. Please read our full <a href="/privacy-policy/" aria-label="see privacy policy">privacy policy</a> available on our website. If you have any questions or comments about our website or our Privacy Policy please contact us at <a href="mailto:info@wnj.com">info@wnj.com</a> or 616.752.2000.

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