COVID-19 Business Interruption Coverage Litigation
This is the third installment of our series of articles reviewing some of the key trends and developments currently impacting the U.S. insurance industry. The issuance of various governmental orders requiring businesses to temporarily modify or close their operations led to an almost immediate avalanche of claims and lawsuits involving first-party commercial property policies. According to the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law Covid Coverage Litigation Tracker, by mid-December there had been approximately 2,122 COVID-19 coverage cases, with 1,923 involving business interruption, 1,732 extra expense, 1,658 civil authority, 216 other, 208 ingress/egress, 110 contamination, 91 event cancellation, 84 sue and labor, and 15 liability cases. Approximately 469 cases were filed as putative class actions and 745 cases include allegations of bad faith.
