Insurance Contract Ambiguity

David Rossmiller has a blistering take on those who think insurance contract ambiguity is a scheme by insurers to take unsuspecting clients to the cleaners.  His commenter clears up any further ambiguities.

A major problem with ambiguities is not that they exist, but that one can not get rid of them!  Insurance contract language does not exist in a vacuum.  Companies try their darned-est to list exclusions so that they won’t be voided for ambiguity.  Courts approve language as non-ambiguous and then insurers rely upon that same language sometimes to their detriment.  Adam Scales at Washington and Lee and I have had a little debate about the limits of this and I thought he was wrong when he said that no matter how hard the industry tries to avoid a risk, the disclaimer will likely be struck down as ambiguous.  In a recent law.com article I thought he was coming around to my point of view (i.e. not everything is really ambiguous, some things can be made certain).  However, I am beginning to think his initial belief is right from a practical point of view.