The AEGIS Climate Change Litigation Service ("ACCLS") is designed to serve AEGIS members presently involved in, or imminently threatened by, climate change-related litigation.
Climate change-related litigation involves highly complex scientific, technical and legal issues that are specific to the climate change controversy. The ACCLS is a single, centralized source of information on climate change litigation and these related issues -- so it helps members access the information they need in a quick, cost-effective manner while reducing the duplication of effort and the costs associated with litigation.
- Description of service
- Intended use of service
- Service will not provide
- Who may use the service
- How to use the service
- Payment of ACCLS defense costs
Description of service
The service includes electronic, password-protected, word-searchable databases for climate change science, technology, litigation, and experts supported by hardcopy libraries of materials useful in litigation. These databases have been developed by outside counsel.
The litigation database includes a collection of motions, pleadings, discovery materials, testimony, transcripts, and exhibits from decided and pending climate change cases. The scientific/technology database includes major scientific and economic articles, studies and research papers organized by topic. The expert database incorporates copies of presentations, articles and prior testimony of various experts in relevant disciplines. These documents can save utilities and energy-related entities – and their counsel – time and money when preparing for climate change-related litigation by building upon the successful approaches in prior cases, and by reducing the need to "reinvent the wheel."
This service is sponsored by AEGIS and is available through outside counsel. The databases and libraries themselves are the work product of outside counsel and will remain in the possession of outside counsel. They are not available for downloading by users of the service.top ^
Intended use of service
This service is intended to support AEGIS members by providing specialized risk management tools and services for climate change-related litigation. It will help utilities and energy-related entities identify and interpret relevant scientific, technical and legal issues that may appear in lawsuits. It is meant to provide an organized structure through which utilities and energy-related entities and their counsel can quickly get the expertise and knowledge they need.top ^
Service will not provide
This service is not a general climate change information service. It is not meant to replace the legal counsel that is presently serving the utility or energy-related entity. Nor is its purpose to sell or otherwise distribute the databases, or provide unauthorized access to copyrighted information. It is not intended to be used as a resource for AEGIS members who may want background material on climate change for general purposes. To access information about recent developments in the law related to climate change – as well as numerous publications regarding climate change litigation, legislation regulation and policy litigation, corporate compliance and risk management, and international developments – please visit the publications section of the AEGIS website under Climate Change.
Who may use the service
To use this service, parties must be in active climate change-related litigation or anticipate such litigation in the immediate future. All AEGIS members are eligible.
How to use the service
When a utility or energy-related company is engaged in or threatened by a climate change lawsuit, the initial step to engage this service is to contact one of the AEGIS attorneys below. The purpose of this contact is to evaluate several circumstances including the company's status as an AEGIS member and/or policyholder, relationship to the utility or energy industry and the status of pending litigation or the nature of anticipated litigation.
Vice President, Senior Counsel
AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc.
1 Meadowlands Plaza
East Rutherford, NJ 07073
Brian R. Ekdahl
Vice President, Counsel
AEGIS Insurance Services, Inc.
1 Meadowlands Plaza
East Rutherford, NJ 07073
AEGIS approves the use of the service and notifies the company and outside counsel of its decision. At this point, the AEGIS member will have access to the service.
The AEGIS member representative and/or its legal counsel (either in-house or outside) contacts outside counsel, to obtain the desired information and/or other services. Outside counsel will provide an introductory consultation session for the qualified AEGIS member to familiarize the member with the types of climate change-related litigation information and assistance that are available. The purpose of the initial consultation is to discuss the status, direction and strategy of the case and to reach a determination of how, if at all, ACCLS counsel may help. There is no cost to the AEGIS member for this introductory consultation session, whether or not ACCLS counsel is ultimately retained. If the AEGIS member decides to utilize the service, the member will enter into an attorney-client relationship with outside counsel to maintain the attorney-client privilege, the joint defense privilege, and/or the attorney work product protection. Individual members, of course, will decide the scope and nature of the services or database information to be provided by outside counsel as well as the terms and scope of the attorney-client relationship within which such services and/or information will be provided.top ^
Payment of ACCLS defense costs
As noted previously, the initial consultation with recommended counsel is free to AEGIS members. This arrangement applies without regard to whether the claim, or potential claim, is within the scope of AEGIS' insurance coverage. However, if a member decides to utilize the service, the member will be responsible for paying the subsequent defense costs of ACCLS counsel.
