D&O Liability Insurance Companies Must Advance Defense Costs

You are Ms. Big, a director of BigCorp Inc., a New York Stock Exchange listed company. On account of an acquisition of a major subsidiary (now gone sour) the plaintiff’s class-action bar is circling like a school of hungry piranhas. The fifty-percent drop in BigCorp’s stock priceis the blood-in-the-water. You get sued. Personally.

On account of allegations of bad faith self-dealing, BigCorp refuses to indemnify you. Thank goodness you have the protection of the D&O liability insurance policy sold to you by the Really-big Insurance Group(“RIG”). You send them the civil and criminal complaints against you and ask them to pay for your lawyer. They refuse to advance defense costs pending the final outcome of the matter. Ms. Big has a major problem.