Practice Areas

The core of our practice addresses a wide variety of issues and disputes arising out of retrospectively rated and large deductible insurance programs across various lines of coverage. Frequent issues include:

• Retrospective premiums and deductible obligations

• The application of program terms, including basic premium factors, deductible premium credits, aggregate and per-claim limits (both coverage limits and chargeable loss limits), allocated loss adjustment expenses, loss conversion factors, tax multipliers, loss development factors, program maximums, and experience modification factors (including allegations of adverse impact caused by claims mismanagement)

• Alleged bad faith and claims mismanagement on the part of insurance carriers and third-party administrators

• Collateral draws and deficiencies

• Environmental and mass tort claim allocations across triggered policies, cost-share agreements, and contribution claims

• Application of Reinsurance in connection with large risk, loss-sensitive insurance programs, including traditional reinsurance, as well as captive reinsurance programs

The firm assists clients in negotiating with existing and prospective insureds for loss-sensitive programs and with the drafting of program agreements. This can involve single and multiple lines of coverage.

Disputes arising out of commercial insurance products across all lines of coverage and exposure bases. This includes a broad range of issues related to policy terms, audit calculations and premiums, class codes and rates, experience modifiers, premium credits (e.g. construction classification premium adjustment programs), and approved rating plans.

Coverage disputes and related issues are frequently raised by insureds in litigation arising out of loss-sensitive insurance programs. The many times that we have litigated the “coverage case within the case” has expanded the services that we can confidently offer to our clients. Coverage counseling and defense of coverage lawsuits are now a growing standalone practice.

The practice represents insurers, third-party claims administrators, and insurance brokers in errors & omissions and bad faith disputes arising out of coverage decisions, claims management, brokerage services, and administration of group self-insured trusts. Our broad insurance experience makes us well-positioned to counsel and defend clients in actions initiated by insureds with substantial risk retention, self-insureds, and government agencies including workers’ compensation authorities.

Corporate clients, insurers, and claim administrators retain our team for complex, high exposure claims. With decades of experience in the field of claims management litigation, our team is uniquely suited to handle large exposure and catastrophic claims.

Small and mid-sized businesses have legal needs but often experience trouble finding a law firm seeking long-term relationships with their clients. Thomas Kadian offers general counsel services to fill that void. We work closely with our clients to understand their businesses and their needs, help them avoid and resolve legal challenges, and effectively manage risk so they can focus on running their businesses. The practice group proactively partners with our clients as part of their business team and provides services including contract negotiations, disputes and settlement negotiations, employment and human resources issues, arbitration, mediation, special projects, and commercial real estate transactions.

The practice represents self-insured employers, insurance carriers, and third-party claim administrators in their higher exposure claims, civil actions alleging intentional wrongs, and subrogation disputes. Beyond individual claim defense, our team successfully defended a class action arising out of an insurer’s calculation of subrogation liens over a multi-year period. This hands-on claims experience is a key strength of the practice that has led to a proven track record of successfully defending allegations of claims mismanagement.