Litigation, Arbitration, & Dispute Resolution

Our attorneys also have substantial experience with issues arising from insurer insolvencies, and particular expertise in advising both reinsurers in run-off and schemes of arrangement and reinsureds affected by such proceedings. Many of our attorneys have considerable experience handling issues arising from our clients’ participation in reinsurance pools in the United States and abroad. Our attorneys have obtained significant awards-including compound interest and attorney’s fees-for ceding companies, and we have defeated claims on behalf of our reinsurer and retrocessionaire clients.

Under any scenario, Barger & Wolen LLP is able to deliver superior service to our clients because we have made it our business to know our clients, their needs, and the insurance and reinsurance industries.

Representative Victories

• A domestic retrocedent in winning not only pre-hearing security but also an arbitration award in the full amount sought, plus compound interest and attorney's fees, from its alien retrocessionaires
• A domestic ceding company in securing not only pre-hearing security from its A+ rated reinsurer, but also an arbitration award of the full amount sought plus interest and attorney's fees
• A ceding company in securing an arbitration award for the full amount sought, plus interest and attorney's fees, from the fronting company of a reinsurance pool
• A credit insurer in securing the full amount sought, plus interest, against a stop-loss reinsurer
• A domestic retrocedent in obtaining the first federal court decision confirming a default arbitration award, which the arbitration panel had rendered against an alien retrocessionaire that had failed to comply with the arbitrators' pre-hearing security order
• A domestic reinsurer in defeating its cedent's determination of a date of loss and attempt to maximize reinsurance recovery
• An American reinsurer in litigation arising out of its participation as a fronting company in a reinsurance pool
• Several reinsurers involved in insurance insolvencies, including, among others, the Golden Eagle and Citation General insolvencies
• European reinsureds in a "cram-down" commutation pursuant to New York Insurance Law Section 1321
• A Portuguese reinsurer in litigation over its alleged fronting role for a reinsurance pool
• London, European, and Japanese reinsurance companies as defendants and counterclaim plaintiffs in a series of litigations, arbitrations, and ADR proceedings with their Boston-based reinsured
• London and European reinsurers on the inspection of records of their reinsureds, and in commutation negotiations following the inspections
• A London reinsurer in an arbitration with its Philadelphia-based reinsured over a significant book of business
• A life reinsurer sued by an MGU for allegedly improper cancellation of the MGU contract
• A life reinsurer in successfully avoiding liability for a treaty year with a high loss ratio, based on the ceding company's failure to establish agreement to the fundamental terms of the renewal
• A life reinsurer in successfully avoiding claims liability on the basis that the facultative risks had been improperly ceded on an automatic basis
• A fronting company in successfully reopening Bermuda liquidation proceedings and collecting excess reinsurance through the estate of a captive reinsurer
• A ceding company in successfully collecting reinsurance on a federal workers compensation program and defeating a facultative reinsurer's defense that liabilities had been capped below its layer
• A major multi-line insurer in a series of reinsurance arbitrations resolving issues arising from the use of surety insurance products as part of a covert structured financing through SPVs, arranged between JPMorgan Chase and Enron.
• A major Japanese insurer in a reinsurance arbitration with a U.S. domestic ceding company concerning non-disclosure of material information.
• London Market Companies in a series of litigations and arbitrations against U.S. domestic ceding companies in which the contested facts involved misrepresentation and non-disclosure of material facts.
• A leading Portuguese reinsurer in litigation against a U.S. ceding company and London broker in which the alleged misconduct by the agent of the ceding company was asserted as a basis for avoidance.