Forgive Them Their Trespasses (But Don't Expect Coverage for Them)

“Personal injury” coverage has long been a source of contentious and creative litigation between insurers and policyholders, particularly during the past decade when insureds sought to evade pollution claims by recharacterizing them as trespass or nuisance claims for “invasion of the right of private occupancy.” This article discusses the present status of the “personal injury” pollution coverage debate and its implications for the exploding problem of “technoprivacy” claims arising out of junk e-mail, spam, and computer “cookies.”