Scott Seaman, co-author of Hinshaw’s recently published America 250 book and co-chair of Hinshaw’s Global Insurance Services Practice Group, was interviewed in the third of five episodes of the Business Insurance “Insuring America” video series, which highlights the impact and development of insurance law in the past 250 years across the United States.
Evolution of Insurance Coverage Litigation in America
In the episode, Scott examines the evolution of insurance coverage litigation in America, noting that such disputes were fairly uncommon before the 1970s. The “legal underpinnings” for modern liability were laid in the 1960s and 1970s with the development of strict liability doctrines, expanded tort laws, and the creation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and expansion of environmental regulations.
Invention of Long-Tail Claims
A pivotal shift came with the arrival of the “long-tail claim.” While traditional insurance claims were “limited in time, place, and space,” long-tail claims involve continuing or progressive injuries and damages sometimes spanning decades, such as environmental exposures, asbestos injuries, and other prolonged harms.
Scott explains how the explosion of environmental and asbestos losses in the late 1970s and 1980s fundamentally transformed the insurance landscape and led to insurer insolvencies that challenged insurance regulators and complex, high-stakes insurance coverage claims and litigation.
Watch the Business Insurance Episode
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.