KJC is extremely proud to announce that one of our firm’s attorney, Kathy Jo Cook , has been appointed as state co-chairs of the American Association for Justice Business Interruption Insurance Committee. In this role, Kathy will provide fellow attorneys with the best business interruption insurance information and professional assistance needed to successfully serve their clients. This position is an amazing honor!
Business Interruption During COVID-19:
During the COVID-19 pandemic, business litigation cases have been on the rise. These cases involve contractual conflicts between businesses and their insurance companies; specifically, businesses are filing business interruption claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic that are being rejected. What does this mean? Most commercial property insurance policies provide coverage for business income loss by adding an endorsement to the insured’s property policy. This endorsement is designed to protect the insured for losses of business income it sustains as a result of direct loss, damage, or destruction to insured property by a covered peril. Although many such clauses are in use today, a typical business income insurance clause reads as follows:
“We will pay for the actual loss of business income you sustain due to the necessary suspension of your “operations” during the period of “restoration.” The suspension must be caused by direct physical loss, damage, or destruction to property. The loss or damage must be caused by or result from a covered cause of loss.
Insurance companies have released statements about COVID-19, saying that coronavirus-related claims are not covered. The team at KJC can prove that this is not necessarily true. To learn more, click HERE.
The American Association for Justice:
In August 1946, a group of plaintiffs attorneys got together and discussed their shared mission to put together a plan for a “national organization to combat new threats facing trial lawyers across the country.” It was at this meeting where the group created a new association by the name, the National Association of Claimants’ Compensation Attorneys (NACCA). It wasn’t long before the group’s mission attracted attorneys engaged in almost all parts of trial advocacy.
Today, The American Association for Justice is a widely recognized group home to “a broad-based, international coalition of attorneys, law professors, paralegals, and law students,” (justice.org). The American Association for Justice (AAJ) fights to make sure that all people have a fair/equal chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are negatively impacted by the misconduct of other people or other organizations. This means that the AAJ is committed to taking on even the most powerful corporations in the pursuit of justice.
The organization’s website states, “AAJ is the only national plaintiff lawyer association working as an advocate for trial attorneys and their clients on a broad range of issues to defend the civil justice system. We continually and effectively block attempts in Congress to preempt state civil justice laws and play a vital role in protecting clients’ rights as they come under attack from insurance, drug, and oil industries and other large corporations that dominate the political process,” (justice.org).
The organization’s mission statement reads, “The mission of the American Association for Justice is to promote a fair and effective justice system—and to support the work of attorneys in their efforts to ensure that any person who is injured by the misconduct or negligence of others can obtain justice in America’s courtrooms, even when taking on the most powerful interests,” (justice.org).
The AAJ works to achieve the following goals:
- Promote accountability & safety
- Advocate for the civil justice system
- Enhance the practice of law
- Improve our communities
In order to carry out the goals listed above, the AAJ has recruited the country’s best trial attorneys. Trial attorneys don’t represent the needs/wants of insurance companies, big corporations, and the government… they represent the people. They fight for people who have been injured and have nowhere else to turn. They seek justice and accountability for clients who are harmed by the negligence and misconduct of others. They fight for justice and compensation for the family and communities who have suffered a tragedy at the hands of others.
The legal team at KJC Law Firm LLC is proud to support and represent the American Association for Justice in the state of Massachusetts!
