§ 2017.210.Insurance carriers; nature, limits or disputes regarding coverage

Knowing whether an opposing party has insurance, and how much of it, shapes how a case gets litigated and settled, and this section makes that information discoverable as a matter of course. A party may discover the existence and contents of any agreement under which an insurance carrier may be liable to satisfy all or part of a judgment, or to indemnify or reimburse for payments made toward one, including the carrier's identity and the nature and limits of coverage.

Discovery under this section also reaches whether the carrier is disputing coverage of the claim at all, but it stops there; a party cannot use this section to discover the substance of that coverage dispute, only its existence. That line keeps the underlying tort or contract case separate from a coverage fight that may end up litigated on its own, often in a different proceeding.

Finally, the section makes clear that none of this changes the rules of admissibility at trial. Information about an insurance agreement obtained through this kind of discovery is not, by reason of that disclosure alone, admissible in evidence, preserving the traditional rule that a jury generally should not hear about a defendant's insurance coverage when deciding liability or damages.