Recurring Document Requests in Insurance Litigation: Drafting Reasonable Requests and Raising Sustainable Objections

This CLE webinar will offer insurance litigators for plaintiff or defense practical ways to make drafting and responding to perennial document requests less onerous and more efficient. Insurer counsel, plaintiff counsel, and a document-production expert will discuss in the specific context of insurance litigation what Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 and 34 require and prohibit and propose solutions to several seemingly intractable discovery problems.

Whenever coverage is litigated, policyholders and insurers request a predictable set of written materials hoping to establish or refute the proposed meaning of the policy or to demonstrate how claims were or were not properly addressed.

Typical policyholder requests include the claim and underwriting files, underwriting manuals, drafting histories of policy language, and documents interpreting that language, while insurers often request production of all decisions, documents, and communications from the insurer that the policyholder contends supports its position. Both sides have an interest in limiting access to information helpful to the other side.

Requests are often met with equally predictable responses that do little to help resolve the case. Both sides need to know how to better draft reasonable and precise requests and how to correctly raise sustainable objections and avoid boilerplate and vague responses.

Listen as the panel dives deep into what the FRCP requires in insurance litigation and novel ways to provide responses and objections that comply with the rules but retain sufficient flexibility to address the fluidity of discovery.