Privilege Log Necessary, Regardless of Burden

Riddell, Inc. v. Superior Court, No. B275482 (D2d7 Aug. 23, 2017)

Insurers filed a declaratory relief action regarding a coverage dispute with an Insured that manufactures football helmets. The rule is pretty well settled that, to the extent that there are factual questions in the DJ that overlap the underlying litigation, the DJ case must get stayed to avoid prejudice to the insured in having to litigate the merits as part of the coverage dispute. That said, the issue doesn’t come up very often because usually a coverage DJ action can be resolved as a matter of law based just on the policy language and the underlying complaint.