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Pretzel & Stouffer, Chartered has long serviced the insurance industry. Our attorneys are well schooled in policy interpretation and are familiar with issues related to policy coverage and exclusions. Our work in this area regularly involves multiparty declaratory judgment actions in which we represent standard and surplus lines companies at various levels of coverage.
On a daily basis, we handle coverage matters concerning nearly every type of insurance. These matters may involve general liability policies, or any of a number of policies of more specific insurance: errors and omissions, automobile, directors' and officers' liability, aviation, toxic tort, Year 2000, business interruption, workers compensation, or environmental, to name a few. We have also undertaken complex and difficult regulatory matters involving the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Coverage questions often lurk in the context of matters that do not initially seem to be insurance cases, such as environmental and product-liability actions. Just as frequently, of course, they arise in the commercial setting, where one might expect to find them. Regardless of where they are found, these questions almost always have two things in common: They expose a client to potentially extreme financial liability, and they require skilled and thorough legal handling. Because we recognize the importance of these issues, we have made a practice of handling them with the necessary care and attention to possible pitfalls. We have enjoyed substantial success in this regard—and our success is evidenced by the significant number of appellate decisions in which we have played a part.
Our practice benefits as well from the ability to develop creative solutions to the unique problems that present themselves in this area of law. From time to time, our clients call upon us to assist them in drafting their policies, with an eye toward issues that might otherwise turn into troublesome litigation. Our familiarity with the issues that so often lead to litigation provides us a valuable perspective in avoiding those conflicts—or, at least, positioning our clients so as to anticipate the inevitable conflicts and prepare for them accordingly.
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