Insurance

On March 23, 2020, shortly after the Governors of California, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey issued orders closing non-essential businesses, we recommended that businesses review their insurance policies to determine if they had either business interruption coverage or civil authority coverage that might be available to lessen the economic blow of COVID-19.  As explained here, business interruption coverage generally allows a business to recover certain losses in the event that the business suffers physical damage or loss that prevents it from operating its business, whereas civil authority coverage, generally allows a business to recover losses when it a civil authority issues an order that closes a business or prevents it from normal operations.  We also recommended that businesses submit any claims expeditiously because virtually all policies require policy holders to submit claims “promptly,” and the failure to do so provides a basis to deny a claim.