Insurance coverage for environmental claims including claims to recover environmental investigation, cleanup, liability, and defense costs often raise numerous coverage issues and defenses. Current trends in environmental claims–whether NRD, CERCLA, RCRA, or other claims–present evolving theories of liability and defenses that impact potential coverage under various policies are important for counsel, claims professionals, and risk managers to understand.

Although policyholders often seek coverage under general liabilities policies and environmental insurance policies, they also may seek coverage under property insurance, D&O policies, and other business policies.

Frequently litigated pollution exclusion issues include what constitutes a “pollutant” and whether the exclusion bars coverage for liabilities a policyholder did not expect or intend. Counsel must also wrestle with determining which costs and liabilities are covered damages under a policy.

Listen as our authoritative panel provides counsel with a review of new and emerging trends in environmental claims, potential coverage under various commercial policies, the parameters of critical policy exclusions and defenses, the scope of covered damages, and apportioning damages among insurers and policyholders.