Lawyer Katherine Explains: Insurance Lawsuits

if you need to understand the insurance lawsuits involving Amber Heard you have to watch this video hi there my name is Catherine I'm a lawyer and I also think differently if you feel that these Insurance lawsuits involving Amber Heard are complicated and hard to understand you are not alone insurance law is generally very complicated and quite honestly boring but because we are interested in this topic insurance law is becoming more interesting for a lot of people and I want to go ahead and explain and simplify that for you and to just give you an idea of how complicated these Insurance lawsuits are this is my notes so many arrows going on there as you can see but we will simplify this for you with all of our wonderful visuals and graphics and I'll also convert my notes into a much understandable graphics for you before we move on if you can hit subscribe that will really help our Channel takes me quite a while to go over all of these legal documents and summarize them and make them as simple as possible but I really love doing it and so if you can please help our Channel 

I'd really appreciate it as I mentioned in my other videos I used to be a defense attorney for over 12 years so it's quite a long time as a defense attorney I was actually assigned and retained by insurance company to represent their insured that means I used to be in the same position as Amber heard's lawyers in the Johnny Depp trial where her defense attorneys were actually retained by her insurance company to represent Amber Heard as their insured that's why I have some Insider knowledge of how all of this is playing out and what exactly the insurance companies are talking about in their legal documents so let's break that down the first question you need to understand is this who are these insurance companies and why are they providing legal representation to Amber Heard there are two insurance companies involved in the lawsuit relating to Amber Heard the first one is New York marine and the second one and is Travelers Insurance New York Marine is sometimes referred to as Pro site in some of the legal documents so if you see the word Pro side that is actually New York Marine they're one in the same the first insurance policy that Amber Heard took out was with New York Marines on July 2018.

She did that under her company called under the black Sky Inc the insurers were under the black Sky Inc and herself in my other video where I talk about the truth why Travelers Insurance is paying for Amber heard's legal fees I mentioned what an insured is an insured is the person or company that the insurance company is actually providing insurance coverage so here with New York Marines the policy there is ensuring Amber Heard and her company under the black Sky Inc by the way whenever I mentioned my other videos I will put the link in the description below I don't talk about them in detail because I want to keep this video simple so go ahead and check that out when you get a chance the New York marine policy is actually a commercial general liability policy what that means is Amber Heard actually purchased that insurance policy for her commercial general liability which means it's something involving her company her business as an actress that's why it applies to commercial general liability the second insurance policy that Amber Heard took out was with Travelers Insurance she purchased that insurance policy four months after she purchased the New York marine policy The Travelers insurance policy is different from New York Marine in terms of it is actually a homeowner's insurance policy C which means she took out that insurance policy tied to a home that she owned that's why it's a homeowner's insurance policy both the insurance policies for New York marine and travelers insurance apply to when Amber Heard was sued by Johnny Depp because both insurance policies apply to a defamation claim and as we all know Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation when Johnny Depp sued Amber Heard for defamation in March 2019 that lawsuit triggered the insurance policies for New York marine and travelers to provide certain obligations to Amber Heard and that's where all this insurance lawsuit is coming into play which is the question of what are the respective obligations of New York marine and travelers to their insured AKA Amber Heard if someone asks you what are these Insurance losses it's about anyway the simplest answer is it's about figuring out the obligations of travelers insurance and New York Marine to their insured AKA Amber Heard it's that simple the second question you ask yourself then is what are these obligations that New York marine and travelers owe to their insured or Amber Heard in my other video about Travelers Insurance I mentioned in detail that the insurance companies have two duties the first is a duty to defend and the second is the duty to indemnify let me briefly talk about the duty to defend and duty to indemnify but if you want to know that in more detail go ahead and check out my other video the duty to defend means that the insurance company has a duty to its insurer to provide an attorney and then also pay for the attorney's fees and cost during the litigation and even the trial and sometimes even for the appeal the duty to indentify refers to an insurance company's duty to its insured to pay for any settlement or judgment that has been entered against their insured for example here we all know that Amber Heard was given a judgment against her for 10.35 million dollars so the question becomes which of the insurance company has a duty to indemnify her or a duty to pay that 10.35 million now that we have the basic Foundation regarding insurance law let's dive in deeper as to these Insurance lawsuits as of now there are only two Insurance lawsuits happening so think about it as two separate Lanes happening all at the same time but paralleling each other I like visualizing roads or Lanes like that or visualizing complicated information that helps me understand stand it better so I'm using those examples for you as well in case that helps you but if you want to use something different feel free to go ahead but for now we're going to think about these two lawsuits as a road that's going up and paralleling each other the first road or the first lawsuit that we'll talk about is between Travelers and New York Marine only so those are the only two parties involved in this first lawsuit this first lawsuit started in July 2021 which means it was started when Johnny Depp's litigation was still happening but before the trial so July 2021 was when Travelers Insurance sued New York Marine what was Travelers suing New York Marine for there were three major issues that they were suing them for the first issue that Travelers is claiming is that New York Marine should be providing a duty to defend to Amber Heard meaning meaning that New York Marines should be paying for Amber heard's attorney's fees and costs the second reason Travelers is suing New York Marine is Travelers is arguing that New York Marine owes Amber Heard a duty to indemnify which means that New York Marine should pay for whatever judgment or settlement that will happen during the trial or before the trial if there's any settlement that happened the reasons why Travelers is arguing that New York Marine has a duty to defend and indemnify Amber Heard is because Travelers already accepted that they have a duty to defend and indemnify Amber Heard and since both New York marine and travelers have Amber Heard as their common insured Travelers is basically say hey New York Marines you have to share 50 with us paying Amber heard's attorney's fees and cost and also you have to share 50 percent with did whatever settlement or judgment that will be entered against our same insured which is Amber Heard at the time that Travelers filed that lawsuit against New York Marine Travelers was that one who was paying for Amber hurts attorney's fees and costs and also Travelers is thinking that it does not want to be on the hook by itself in paying the 10.35 million judgment entered against Amber Heard that's why they want New York Marine to be part of the duty to defend and the duty to indemnify Amber Heard the third main issue why Travelers sued New York Marine is they're claiming that New York Marine owes Amber Heard a duty to provide independent counsel since this lawsuit is filed in California California law applies and in California the insurance law states that if there is a conflict of interest with the attorney that the insurance company actually retained for the insured then the insured could request an independent Council from their insurance company that means that Amber Heard wanted to retain her own attorneys that were not appointed by New York Marines to her let's put that into context and talk about specifically Travelers allegation that New York Marine OS Amber Heard a duty to provide independent counsel or what is called in California the Q Miss Council because humans came from the name of the case law where that law actually came from when New York Marine actually agreed to defend Amber Heard in the lawsuit of Johnny Depp New York Marine retained the law firm of Cameron McAvoy the law firm who will be defending Amber Heard against Johnny Depp's lawsuit here's what I find interesting according to New York Marine's legal document documents when New York Marine actually retained camera and mcavoy's Law Firm to represent Amber Heard they did that they selected camera and macavoy specifically because that law firm was already representing Amber Heard in the lawsuit of Johnny Depp which means that they actually said that Amber Heard actually hired camera and McAvoy already even before New York Marine was at play and so it makes you wonder why at some point according to New York Marine Amber Heard and her other defense attorneys refused to work with Cameron McAvoy when in the first place Amber Heard hired Cameron McAvoy that's why New York Marine retained them I'm sure we'll get more information regarding what happened with Cameron McAvoy during the discovery phase of this lawsuit the discovery phase is the process in litigation where the parties are allowed to get more information from each other such as documents or depositions and other evidence that can be used at trial to summarize the three issues why Travelers ended up suing New York Marine are these according to Travelers number one New York Marine has a duty to defend Amber hurt second that New York Marine has a duty to indemnify Amber Heard and third that New York Marine has a duty to provide an independent Council or cumis Council to Amber Heard here's something very important to remember regarding the third issue that Travelers raised against New York Marine which is that Travelers believe New York Marine owes a duty to provide an independent Council to Amber Heard the court on January 2022 actually issued a ruling and the ruling stated that nope New York Marine does not have a duty to provide Amber Heard with an independent Council and to Simply simplify this video I won't talk about the detail as to how that came about I can talk about that in another video if you'd like so let me know in the comments below if you want me to explain that further but just know that now the court has held that New York Marine does not have a duty to provide Amber Heard with an independent Council which means that New York Marine did not have a duty to agree to Elaine bradahof as her independent Council now that we know that Travelers sued New York marine and the basis for that lawsuit what happened next what happened next is New York Marine counter sued against Travelers what are the basis for Newark Marine's lawsuit against Travelers they also have three specific reasons for their lawsuits it's important to remember though that New York Marine counters food Travelers on March 2022 which means that New York Marine did that after the court issued its ruling on January 2022 that New York Marine does not owe Amber Heard a duty to provide an independent Council so a lawsuit is like a chess game someone makes a move that then makes the other one move in a specific way so here when the judge actually made the move of issuing that order on January 2022 that's why New York Marine in turn made the move of counter suing against Travelers and when I talk about the three bases for their lawsuit against traveler it all makes sense why they made that move countersuit against Travelers before we move on if you can let us know in the comments below where are you watching from we absolutely love seeing your comments about that here are some of the comments that we've received so far from Sydney Australia from Canada from France from London and South Africa go ahead and let us know we really get excited to know that we're delivering these information in the United States and all over the world we appreciate you so here we go the first reason why New York Marines sued Travelers is that Newark Marine is claiming that it does not have a duty to defend Amber Heard with that independent Council which as we know aligns with that Court ruling I mentioned earlier the second reason why New York Marines sued Travelers is North Korean is claiming that it does not have a duty to defend Amber Heard and then the third reason why New York Marine is suing Travelers is because it's asking travelers to reimburse New York Marine with the amount of attorneys fees and costs that it already has paid out for Amber heard's defense and according to New York Marine they have paid out about more than six hundred thousand dollars for Amber heard's defense fees and costs regarding that last third issue New York Marine is basically saying that we should be reimbursed for the money we're already paid because we did not have a duty to defend or indemnify Amber Heard to begin with so we shouldn't have had to pay that over six hundred thousand dollars of attorney's fees and costs so Travelers you need to pay us back for that here's something also interesting according to the New York Marine legal document they are actually asking for reimbursement from Travelers because they issued the check of over six hundred thousand dollars of attorney's fees and cost payment to Travelers so it sounds like Travelers in turn paid the attorneys that amount that's why New York Marine is seeking reimbursement from Travelers sometimes the insurance company issues the check to the insured who then pays the attorneys but here that's not what that happened New York Marine did not issue the check to Amber Heard to in turn pay her are attorneys but instead issued it to Travelers who in turn paid Amber heard's attorneys that is why New York Marine is not asking a reimbursement from Amber Heard directly but from travelers to whom the ancient checked and that's what the first Insurance lawsuit is all about traveler sued New York Marines New York Marine counter Sues and their basis for the lawsuit for this first road or first Lane of insurance lawsuit is who actually owes Amber Heard the duty to defend and the duty to indemnify now that we have the basics of what this first Insurance lawsuit is about we're going to move on now with this second lawsuit remember these two lawsuits are separate from each other but are parallel to each other which means that they're going on at the same time but think of them as separate so we'll talk about the second Insurance lawsuit now has Mr Depp proven by a greater weight of the evidence that question the statement was made or published by Ms heard answer yes the state question the statement was about Mr Depp answer yes question this statement was false answer yes question the statement has a defamatory implication about Mr Depp answer yes question the defamatory implication was designed and intended by misheard answer yes question due to circumstances surrounding the publication of the statement it conveyed a defamatory implication to someone who saw it other than Mr death answer yes do you find that Mr Depp has proven by clear and convincing evidence that misheard acted with actual malice answer yes for the second Insurance lawsuit it's important to remember that it started after the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and after the Judgment was entered on June 24 2022 against Amber Heard who are the parties involved in this second Insurance lawsuit there are only two parties involved here the first one is New York marine and the second one is Amber Heard herself about two weeks after the Judgment was entered against Amber Heard in judges karate's Court New York Marine filed a lawsuit against Amber Heard what are the basis of New York Marines lawsuit against Amber Heard there are two main reasons why New York Marines sued Amber Heard the first reason New York Marine sued Amber Heard is they're claiming that New York Marine does not have a duty to indemnify Amber hurt remember how I mentioned earlier that a duty to indemnify means that an insurance company has a duty to pay for the Judgment that was entered against their insured and they're insured here is Amber Heard so New York Marine is arguing that it does not have a duty to pay for Amber heard's 10.35 million judgment that was entered against her two weeks before New York Marines filed that lawsuit the second reason why New York Marines suit Amber Heard is New York Marine is claiming that it has no duty to defend Amber Heard in the Johnny Depp trial and even on an ongoing basis even on appeal as we know Amber Heard appealed that judgment against her and New York Marine is saying that they have no duty to defend her meaning provide attorneys fees and costs for her appeal those two reasons why New York Marines sued Amber Heard are all based on the finding of the jury that Amber heard committed defamation with actual malice as I've mentioned in my other video insurance policies have what is called an exclusion an exclusion are reasons or events that when they happen the insurance policy is not triggered which means the insurance policy does not apply and therefore the insurance company does not have any more obligation to their insured one of the major exclusions in insurance policy is if the insurer committed an intentional act or a malicious act the in the insurance policy will not apply that is a public policy decision or law because we don't want to reward a person if they committed an intentional act or a willfully malicious act and here because Amber Heard was found by the jury to have committed actual malice that would have triggered the exclusion provision in Mill Marines insurance policy that's why New York Marine had to wait before filing the lawsuit against Amber Heard until after the Judgment has been entered against her because the entire basis of their lawsuit against Amber Heard is based on the fact that the jury found Amber Heard to have committed actual malice in the defamation claim and now New York Marine is arguing that because Amber Heard was found with actual malice then New York Marine does not owe Amber Heard a duty to defend and does not owe her a duty to indemnify what happened next after New York Marines sued Amber Heard Amber Heard recently countersued New York Marines when they say recently she filed her countersuit on November 21 2022.

What's the reason for Amber heard's lawsuit against New York Marine in her legal document she provided two main reasons reasons the first one is Amber disclaiming that New York Marine breached its contract against her and the contract she's referring to is the insurance policy because when you enter into an insurance policy with an insurance company that is considered a contract so she's claiming a breach of contract by New York Marines against her when New York Marine did not provide her with a duty to defend and a duty to indemnify the second reason why Amber Heard is suing New York Marine is based on bad faith law bad faith law is based on the breach of implied Covenant of good faith and fair dealings quite a mouthful in its simplest form what Amber Heard is arguing is that New York Marine when it determined that it shouldn't provide any defense or any duty to indemnify to her committed bad faith and because they committed bad faith the other laws involving bad faith law are triggered and bad faith law it was designed to protect the insured protect us when we're going against an insurance company so let's say an insurance company denies your health coverage a treatment that you needed but they denied it and they denied it in bad faith then you can sue them for that so here Amber Heard is arguing that New York Marines denied their duty to defend and indemnify her in bad faith therefore the laws involving bad faith are triggered and those laws of bad faith includes the ability for the person to ask for punitive damages so here in Amber heard's legal document she is actually claiming punitive damages against New York Marines for refusing to provide her with attorneys fees and costs and a duty to indemnify in summary the two reasons why Amber Heard is new Earth Marine is based on breach of contract and second bad faith law so now you know what the second Insurance lawsuit is about it's about New York Marines suing Amber Heard and Amber Heard counter suing New York marine and this second lawsuit or second lane of insurance lawsuit involves what the Judgment of the jury was against Amber Heard in terms of they found actual malice against her now that we broke down the first Insurance lawsuit and the second Insurance lawsuit you can see that there are similarities in terms of the issues raised by the parties but there are major differences like I mentioned the second lawsuit really focuses on the actual malice finding against Amber Heard here that is why because of the similarities of the cases there was a motion for consolidation by Travelers a motion for consolidation means is Travelers requested the course for the first Insurance lawsuit and the second Insurance lawsuit to combine them into one court so that there won't be two cases paralleling each other in two different courts because what happens is if there's a ruling here it might conflict with a ruling here that's one of the arguments that they raised the court has already issued a ruling regarding Travelers motion for consolidation and here is the Court's ruling the Court ruled that both of the two insurance cases will be Consolidated but for a limited reason and The Limited reason is for pre-trial purposes only what that means is for the discovery phase or whenever there's a deposition happening it will apply to both of the issues raised in these two separate lawsuits so let's say Elaine bradahof gets deposed the questions that the lawyers have to ask her must involve both the issues raising this first Insurance lawsuit and the issues raised in the second Insurance lawsuit that just makes sense in terms of time efficiency of the witnesses and the lawyers and also just imagine the attorney's fees and costs that are incurring as well if there were separate depositions that had to be done of Elaine bredhoff or any other Witnesses but to some extent the issues are very similar so those are the ruling by the court that they can be Consolidated but for pre-trial purposes only we'll see what the court will say when it gets closer to trial if the trial will be Consolidated as well but for now it's very unlikely because the court already said that it can only be Consolidated for pre-trial purposes only that was quite a lot wasn't it so that's the summary of the two insurance lawsuits hopefully that makes sense let me know in the comments below if you have any other questions we'll dive deeper into them but as you can see just the overview of them is a lot to handle so don't feel bad if it's hard to understand because even lawyers have difficulty trying to figure all of these moving Parts out insurance law is not the easiest law to understand by the way while these two Insurance lawsuits are going then the appeal of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are also still going at the same time did you know that their appeal could last up to three years from the Virginia court of appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court check out our other video where I talk about that thanks for watching and remember let's make positivity louder foreign