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Home - 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 litigators will help level the playing field. Our lawyers 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 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.

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Several members of our insurance team are also members of the WarnerAppellate 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 Practice team adds 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:

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Partner

Kristina M. Araya

Jason L. Byrne

Associate

Brianna Richardson

Carly A. Zagaroli

Warner served as appellate Counsel in Ile v. Foremost Ins. Co.
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)

Litigation - Insurance

Insurance – Policy Interpretation

Warner served as national insurance counsel for a major trucking company. We counseled client on insurance-related issues arising out of client&#8217;s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, including: analysis of coverage and deductible obligations under liability policies, advising on claims handling and settlement issues and negotiating with insurance carriers.

Insurance Law

Insurance – Issues Related to Bankruptcy

Obtained judgment in federal court that Chinese insurance company was obligated to defend major American manufacturer in products liability action arising out of a Chinese-supplied component part.

Litigation

Whirlpool Corporation v China Pacific Insurance Company

Warner regularly advises clients on legal issues involving insurance and indemnity.&nbsp;

Counsel on Insurance and Indemnity Issues

Warner attorneys advise clients in connection with insurance claims for major property damage.&nbsp;

Counsel on Insurance Claims for Property Damage

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

Consumers Energy Insurance Litigation

Coronavirus: Insurance Coverage for Business-Related Losses?

Warner Helps You Navigate “Business As Anything But Usual”

Opening the Floodgates? North Carolina Court Finds Business Interruption Insurance Covers COVID-19 Losses

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

MI Court of Appeals Holds Stay-At-Home Orders Did Not Cause “Physical Loss or Damage”

Insurance Litigation

Regulatory and Compliance

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

Insurance

The Warner Norcross + Judd LLP lawyer responsible for the contents of our advertising and this website is managing partner <a href="/people/mark-j-wassink/" aria-label="Mark Wassink">Mark Wassink</a> who can be reached at <a href="mailto:mwassink@wnj.com" aria-label="email Mark Wassink">mwassink@wnj.com</a> or 616.752.2189. Please read our full <a href="/privacy-policy/" aria-label="see privacy policy">privacy policy</a> available on our website.

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