The most consequential insurance disputes often begin outside the language of traditional coverage claims. They arise from public health crises, environmental mass torts, technological disruption, social change, and liability theories that test policy language written before the risk fully existed. When the exposure is measured in billions and the coverage questions have little precedent, insurers need counsel already working at the front edge of the dispute.
BatesCarey has been at the forefront of the emerging issues defining the insurance industry, from opioids and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to sexual misconduct, climate change, social media addiction, and artificial intelligence, shaping the legal standards that will govern coverage for years to come.
When America’s opioid crisis reached historic proportions, BatesCarey founded the nation’s first Opioid Coverage Task Force to guide insurers through the liabilities and exposures it created. The team monitors opioid lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and healthcare professionals across the country, while helping insurers determine the extent to which those exposures are covered. Clients receive real-time assessment of evolving liability theories, strategic guidance on coverage positions, and advocacy through litigation and arbitration, carefully balancing the interests of insureds in maintaining carrier support against the need to protect policy intent and wording.
The significance of this work extends well beyond opioids. The coverage questions raised by opioid public nuisance litigation are directly shaping how courts will approach future claims involving climate change, social media addiction, and other large-scale societal harms. BatesCarey is at the center of that evolution, litigating the cases that will define coverage for a generation and ensuring that insurers have the counsel, resources, and strategy to navigate what comes next.
PFAS, widely known as “forever chemicals,” have generated some of the most complex and consequential environmental coverage litigation in the country. The scale of potential liability rivals that of asbestos: long-tail, multi-jurisdictional exposure with no clear resolution in sight. The central coverage battleground is the pollution exclusion, and the outcome of those disputes will set precedent across the industry for years to come.
BatesCarey is actively litigating PFAS coverage matters on behalf of insurer clients in multiple jurisdictions, advancing key arguments on the pollution exclusion and other coverage issues that will shape the industry’s response to environmental mass torts. The firm has successfully prevailed in disputes over whether PFAS coverage claims should be resolved by the Aqueous Film-Forming Foam (AFFF) Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) court and continues to develop the legal theories that will define how insurers respond to this wave of claims. The firm also represents insurers facing thousands of claims alleging that long-term use of hair relaxer products causes uterine and ovarian cancer, now consolidated in one of the largest active MDLs in the country.
Social media addiction claims represent the next frontier of public nuisance litigation, and the insurance industry is squarely in the crosshairs. Plaintiffs including school districts, local governments, and state attorneys general are seeking damages from major social media platforms for allegedly designing addictive products that have contributed to a youth mental health crisis. The coverage questions are as novel as the underlying claims: whether Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies cover intentional conduct of this kind, whether public nuisance theories trigger coverage at all, and how courts will apply lessons from opioid litigation to this new wave of claims.
BatesCarey advises and represents insurers navigating coverage disputes arising from social media addiction litigation, bringing the same public nuisance coverage framework developed through years of opioid litigation to bear on these emerging claims. The firm also counsels insurers on related matters alleging that social media platforms facilitated other harmful conduct, helping clients assess exposure, develop coverage positions, and protect policy intent across a rapidly evolving legal landscape.
Sexual misconduct and abuse claims continue to generate high-exposure disputes that raise complex questions of insurance policy interpretation, multi-state law, and coverage allocation. From states extending or suspending statutes of limitations for abuse claims to alleged systemic misconduct driving organizations into bankruptcy, these claims carry far-reaching implications for insurers covering businesses, educational institutions, religious organizations, sports teams, and youth organizations. BatesCarey tracks this wave of claims and has the institutional knowledge to handle even the oldest matters, including those involving lost or fragmented historic policies, with a nuanced understanding of how state law differences affect coverage outcomes across jurisdictions.
Rather than applying a uniform approach, the team understands how coverage issues intersect with settlement value, how to manage the competing interests of all parties at the table, and how to pursue responsible third parties who should be contributing to high-exposure resolutions. When litigation is necessary, BatesCarey litigates in state and federal courts across the country to enforce coverage positions and ensure that all responsible parties share the burden.
Climate change is generating both familiar and entirely new coverage questions for insurers across property and casualty lines. The more immediate risks are property exposures exacerbated by climate-related events, but the casualty side is evolving quickly, presenting a host of liability and coverage issues that will demand new approaches from the insurance industry for years to come.
BatesCarey helps insurers get ahead of those challenges. The team assesses corporate exposure for climate change liability in an evolving legal, regulatory, and statutory landscape, tracks emerging litigation trends to anticipate coverage issues before they arrive, reviews policies for climate change risk, and analyzes potential exclusions. When disputes arise, the firm represents insurers in related coverage proceedings across the United States, drawing on knowledge of the London and Bermuda markets for matters with cross-border dimensions.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is generating insurance exposures faster than the law can resolve them. Claims arising from AI-driven errors and omissions (E&O), AI-generated content, biometric data collection, and algorithmic decision-making are surfacing across professional liability, D&O, cyber, and CGL lines. At the same time, insurers using AI in their own claims handling face emerging bad faith risk as regulators scrutinize automated denial decisions. Policy language designed for a pre-AI world is being tested against risks it was never intended to cover, and new product development has struggled to keep pace.
BatesCarey monitors AI-related claims and litigation across all coverage lines, advises insurers on emerging exposure as the legal and regulatory landscape develops, and assists clients in evaluating and strengthening policy language to address AI-specific risks. As courts begin to resolve the foundational questions around AI liability, clients benefit from counsel that understands both the technology and the coverage framework it disrupts.
Representative Cases
BatesCarey’s recent victories in emerging insurance issues include:
- Opioid Master Disburs. Trust II v. ACE et al., Case No. 22SL-CC02974 (St. Louis County Cir. Ct., March 10, 2025); Over $1 billion in opioid manufacturers’ liabilities for “unbranded marketing” of opioids to the public all “arise from” sales of and representations about policyholder’s products, and therefore coverage was precluded by products-completed operations hazard policy provisions.
- Publix Super Markets, Inc. v. ACE Prop. and Cas. Ins. Co., et al., No. 8:22-cv-2569 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 29, 2024); Achieved ruling that multi-billion-dollar governmental opioid lawsuits present generalized economic losses and do not seek to impose covered liability for damages “because of bodily injury” where there is no claim to prove causation or damages for any individual’s injury.
- In re CVS Opioid Ins. Litig., No. N22C-02-045, 2024 WL 3882607 (Del. Super. Ct. Aug. 20, 2024); Obtained summary judgment ruling in coordination with other commercial general liability insurers that opioid lawsuits seeking to recover generalized economic losses suffered by third-party payors and hospitals in response to the opioid crisis do not seek damages “because of” “bodily injury” or “property damage.”
- Opioid Master Disbursement Tr. II v. ACE Am. Ins., 688 S.W.3d 690 (Mo. Ct. App. 2024); Successfully secured affirmance of dismissal of an opioid-coverage lawsuit, with the court holding that the policies’ forum-selection clauses were mandatory and enforceable.
- In re CVS Opioid Ins. Litig., No. N22C-02-045, 2023 WL 6059801 (Del. Super. Ct. Aug. 25, 2023), as corrected (Sept. 14, 2023); Obtained summary judgment ruling in coordination with other commercial general liability insurers that opioid lawsuits seeking to recover generalized economic losses suffered by governmental entities to abate the opioid crisis do not seek damages “because of” “bodily injury” or “property damage.”
- Tonoga, Inc. v. New Hampshire Ins. Co., 201 A.D.3d 1091, 159 N.Y.S.3d 252 (3d Dep’t 2022); Successfully secured affirmance for AIG insurers based on qualified and absolute pollution exclusions barring coverage for PFAS environmental contamination—the first published decision finding that PFAS chemicals qualify as irritants, contaminants, or pollutants.
- Represented an international reinsurer in a two-week confidential arbitration defending against the cedent’s claims to recover over $30 million for sexual abuse claim payments.
