Insurance industry professionals and attorneys are closely following the most recent concussion-based litigations as they proceed through state and federal courts.  In the aftermath of such class actions—which have and likely will continue to result in settlements or awards at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars—the focus shifts to the policies of insurers and reinsurers and whether those policies provide coverage for the underlying claims.  How courts ultimately decide these coverage issues will have a reverberating effect not only on professional football, but also on all other professional, collegiate and amateur athletics.  These decisions, moreover, could change how liability policies are drafted and underwritten for these types of risks.

Writing for the Insurance Journal, I analyze the potential effects of the imminent summary judgment ruling in the Riddell declaratory judgment action that certain defendant-insurers filed in the wake of the well-publicized NFL concussion class action, and discuss how this ruling could affect future declaratory judgment actions, including the pending action that TIG Insurance Co. filed in response to the two NHL concussion class actions.

The full article is available here.