Long Tail Claims And "Ancient Documents" - Revisions To Rule 803(16)

Companies and institutions with long-tail claims – think asbestos, pollution, and sexual molestation – sometimes become involved in bet-the-company insurance coverage litigation. Faced with a barrage of tort lawsuits, the company turns to the liability insurers it has used for decades. If the insurers are successful in denying coverage, the company may face insolvency. Determining the presence and applicability of coverage requires establishing that the company purchased liability insurance in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and what the terms and exclusions of those policies were. In those coverage cases, the terms of paper documents that have been stuffed away in filing cabinets since Watergate and the Vietnam War, become the key pieces of evidence.