This year, ALI voted to approve a revised restatement of liability insurance law. The restatement project began as a principles project but was converted in October of 2014. The restatement has been 4 years in the development. As a restatement, the project aims to provide clear foundations of common law and its statutory elements or variations, reflect the law as it presently stands, and suggest how it might be appropriated by a court.
Chapter 1 addresses basic contract law doctrines that have special application in the insurance law context: interpretation, waiver, estoppel, and misrepresentation.
Chapter 2 addresses insurance law doctrines relating to the duties of insurers and insureds in the management of potentially insured liability actions: defense, settlement, and cooperation.
Chapter 3 addresses general principles relating to the risks that are most common to most forms of liability insurance; coverage provisions, conditions, and the application of limits, retention, and deductibles.
Chapter 4 addresses remedies, bad faith, enforceability, and broker liability.
ALI often reliably predicts trends in the common law. A visit to the new reinstatement volume may assist defenders and carriers in the future. Public review can be found at: https://www.ali.org/projects/show/liability-insurance/