Month: June 2026

Unearthing Hidden Assets: How Pre-1986 Insurance Policies Can Offset PFAS Liability

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By Edward (Ned) B. Witte, Witte Davis Law; Kristen Drake, PolicyFind; Lindene Patton, Earth & Water Law

The authors wish to thank and acknowledge the contributions to this article by Heather A. Davis, a Partner at Witte Davis Law. Heather has extensive experience in environmental compliance, toxic tort defense, Superfund, and products liability.

Introduction: The PFAS Challenge and the Insurance Solution

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly referred to by the acronym PFAS, have become one of the defining environmental liability challenges of our era. Manufacturers, municipalities, airports, military installations, industrial facilities, and a host of other parties are discovering, often for the first time, that operations conducted decades ago may now carry significant legal and financial consequences. Regulators at both the federal and state levels have moved aggressively to identify contaminated sites, designate responsible parties, and compel investigation and cleanup. The litigation exposure that follows is substantial, and for many entities, the cost of response is daunting.

Yet there is an often-overlooked financial resource that sits quietly in the past, waiting to be discovered: historical commercial general liability (CGL) insurance policies purchased before 1986. For businesses and municipalities that used or released PFAS in their operations as far back as the 1950s, those old policies may represent a meaningful, and sometimes transformative, source of coverage. The catch? Finding them requires specialized expertise, legal strategy, and a willingness to look in places that most organizations have long since stopped checking.

This article, co-authored by environmental and insurance lawyers and an insurance archaeology specialist, is designed to help businesses, municipalities, and other potentially responsible parties (PRPs) understand the landscape of PFAS liability, the insurance coverage options that may exist, and the practical steps involved in accessing them.

Background on PFAS Risk and Historical Context

PFAS are a large and diverse family of synthetic chemicals characterized by the strength of their carbon-fluorine bond, one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. That bond is what makes them so useful: PFAS repel water, oil, and heat. They have been commercially available and widely used since roughly the 1950s, appearing in products as varied as non-stick cookware coatings, food packaging, stain-resistant textiles, firefighting foams (particularly aqueous film-forming foam, or AFFF), and industrial surfactants.

The problem, of course, is the same durability that makes PFAS commercially attractive also makes them extraordinarily persistent in the environment. They do not break down under natural conditions. They accumulate in soil, groundwater, and biological tissue. They travel.1 And they have been linked, through a growing body of epidemiological and toxicological research, to a range of serious human health effects, including certain cancers, immune system disruption, thyroid disease, and developmental harm.2

What is critical to understand for purposes of this discussion is the temporal dimension of PFAS exposure. Releases to the environment that occurred in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are only now being fully identified and quantified, as regulatory frameworks catch up to the science and as sophisticated analytical techniques improve our ability to detect these compounds at very low concentrations. The regulatory treatment of PFAS as hazardous substances is a recent development, even as the environmental releases that drive liability stretch back more than half a century. That temporal gap between release and regulatory response has profound implications for insurance coverage.

PFAS Liability: Federal Authority, State Regulation, and Third-Party Claims

At the federal level, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), enacted in 1980, provides the primary framework for addressing hazardous substance contamination. CERCLA liability is broad and strict: parties that owned or operated contaminated facilities, arranged for disposal or treatment of hazardous substances, or transported such substances may all be held jointly and severally liable for the full costs of investigation and cleanup.

The Biden-era EPA designated perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), the two most extensively studied PFAS compounds, as CERCLA hazardous substances in a final rule that took effect on July 8, 2024. While that rule faces ongoing legal challenge, and while the current administration has signaled some regulatory recalibration, EPA has confirmed that it intends to defend the CERCLA designation for PFOA and PFOS3. For PRPs, the practical effect is clear: PFAS contamination at or near facilities where these compounds were historically used or disposed now triggers the full weight of CERCLA liability and enforcement.

Many states, meanwhile, have moved well ahead of federal standards in regulating PFAS. Wisconsin provides a notable recent example: in June 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court confirmed that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has broad authority to regulate PFAS as hazardous substances under the state’s Spills Law, without the need for additional rulemaking.4 That decision has already been applied in practice, with WDNR issuing Responsible Party notifications in connection with PFAS contamination in Oneida County5. Similar regulatory activity is underway in Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, California, and a growing number of other states.

Beyond regulatory enforcement, PRPs also face exposure from private plaintiffs, including property owners, municipal water systems, and individuals who allege that PFAS contamination has diminished property values, impaired drinking water supplies, or caused personal injury. These third-party claims add a litigation overlay to what might otherwise be a purely regulatory matter, and they expand the range of damages for which coverage may be available.

The cumulative picture is this: the PFAS liability exposure of many businesses and municipalities is real, it is growing, and it reaches back to a time when the use of these compounds was entirely lawful and largely unregulated.

Insurance Coverage for Environmental Damages and the Barrier of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion

For businesses facing environmental liability, the natural question is whether their commercial liability insurance will respond. For most parties holding current CGL policies, the answer is almost certainly no, at least for PFAS and other environmental contamination claims. The reason lies in a sweeping policy exclusion that became standard in the insurance industry in 1986: the “absolute pollution exclusion.”6

Prior to 1986, CGL policies typically contained only a qualified pollution exclusion, which excluded coverage for pollution that was expected or intended by the insured, but preserved coverage for sudden and accidental releases. Courts often interpreted this provision broadly, finding that even gradually occurring contamination could qualify as unexpected and thus covered.7

The insurance industry’s response was to revise the standard CGL form in 1986, adding language that categorically excluded coverage for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the discharge, dispersal, release, or escape of pollutants. Critically, “pollutants” were defined broadly to include virtually any irritant or contaminant, a definition that many courts have applied to include hazardous substances, industrial chemicals, and emerging contaminants like PFAS. The absolute pollution exclusion has effectively closed the door on environmental coverage for many policies issued after 1986, although some jurisdictions, including Indiana, have adopted narrower interpretations of the exclusion.

This means that for PFAS releases that occurred entirely within the post-1986 period, or for parties relying solely on current insurance, coverage is generally unavailable, unless provided by environmental insurance with intentional pollution coverage. Critically, however, for releases that occurred prior to 1986, the older CGL policies that were in force at the time of those releases did not contain the absolute pollution exclusion. Those policies may still respond to covered claims arising from occurrences during the policy period. And for releases of PFAS that trace back to the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, or early 1980s, those policies represent a potentially substantial source of financial recovery.

Insurance Archaeology: Finding Yesterday’s Policies to Pay for Today’s Claims

Insurance archaeology is the process of locating and documenting historical insurance policies that may no longer be in an organization’s active records. As identified by co-author Kristen Drake of PolicyFind, it is “the process of locating and retrieving proof of the existence, terms, conditions, and limits of lost or destroyed insurance policies.”8 The analogy to traditional archaeology is apt: just as an archaeologist reconstructs the past from physical evidence, an insurance archaeologist reconstructs a historical coverage program from whatever documentary traces survive, including policy documents, premium receipts, board minutes, broker correspondence, financial statements, corporate filings, and archival records.

For organizations facing PFAS liability with roots in the pre-1986 era, insurance archaeology is not merely a useful exercise; it may be an essential one. Coverage counsel and insurance archaeologists working together have recovered insurance assets for clients facing legacy environmental, asbestos, and other long-tail liabilities.9 PFAS is the next major frontier for this work.

A foundational concept in understanding why historical CGL policies matter is the distinction between claims-made and occurrence-based policies. Under a claims-made policy, coverage is generally triggered when a claim is first made against the insured during the policy period, regardless of when the underlying exposure or event occurred. Under an occurrence-based policy, coverage is generally triggered when bodily injury or property damage occurs during the policy period. As a result, a claim may be asserted years or even decades later and still implicate historical occurrence-based policies if the injury or damage took place during those earlier policy periods.

Prior to 1986, most CGL policies were occurrence-based. This is why they remain valuable today. A policy that was in force in 1970, for example, may provide coverage for a PFAS release that occurred in that year, even though the claim arising from that release is not asserted until 2025. The policy period has long since ended, but coverage may still be available because the occurrence took place during the policy period. The insurer’s obligation to defend and indemnify against covered claims arising from that occurrence remains in force.

This is a concept that many policyholders and even some of their advisors find counterintuitive. But it is legally well-established, and it is the cornerstone of the case for pursuing historical coverage for PFAS.

In practice, locating pre-1986 CGL policies involve a detailed and often painstaking investigative process. The challenge is significant: fifty-year-old business records were routinely discarded, and most organizations today no longer have records identifying the insurance programs that were in place during that era. But the absence of internal records does not mean coverage did not exist or cannot be proven.

Insurance archaeology investigations typically unfold over a period of sixty to ninety days and involve multiple complementary research strategies. These may include review of surviving corporate records and board minutes; interviews with current and former employees, officers, and brokers; searches of state insurance department records and regulatory filings; review of financial statements and auditor’s workpapers that may identify insurance premiums as line items; examination of historical broker and agent records; searches of federal and state court records involving prior insurance disputes; and review of archival records held by former insurance carriers or their successors. Each investigation is customized to the specific history and structure of the organization.10

One common output of a thorough insurance archaeology investigation is a documented coverage chart, a chronological reconstruction of the organization’s historical insurance program that identifies the policies that existed, their limits, the carriers that issued them, and the terms and conditions relevant to coverage. That documentation forms the foundation for a coverage claim.

One additional practical consideration is the solvency of historical insurers. Some carriers that issued CGL policies in the 1960s and 1970s are no longer in business. However, this does not necessarily defeat a coverage claim. Many states have insurance guaranty funds that may provide protection for certain claims against insolvent carriers, subject to statutory limitations and caps. In addition, successor-in-interest analysis and other insurance recovery mechanisms may provide additional avenues. Coverage counsel with experience in historical policy claims will be familiar with these mechanisms and can advise accordingly.

Conclusion: Practical Strategies and Best Practices

For businesses, including, particularly, privately held businesses that have been in the control of a handful of owners for many years or decades, for municipalities, and for other PRPs facing, or anticipating, PFAS liability, the time to act is now. The regulatory and litigation environment is not static: it is intensifying, at both the federal and state level. Parties that delay in assessing their insurance assets may find that practical recovery becomes more difficult as memories fade, records are further lost, and coverage disputes become more complicated.

We offer the following practical strategies and best practices for organizations navigating this landscape:

  1. Conduct a preliminary insurance audit. Before engaging a full insurance archaeology investigation, work with your coverage counsel to review whatever records currently exist. Corporate files, financial statements, broker records, and even premium payment histories can provide initial leads on the carriers and policy periods that are likely candidates for investigation.
  2. Engage an insurance archaeologist with experience in environmental and other long-tail liabilities. Not all insurance consultants or brokers are equipped to perform true insurance archaeology. The forensic reconstruction of historical coverage programs requires specialized expertise in investigation methodology, document authentication, carrier succession, and coverage analysis. Engage a firm with a demonstrated track record in environmental and emerging contaminant claims. The investment is modest relative to the potential recovery.
  3. Work with experienced coverage counsel. Identifying historical policies is the beginning, not the end, of the process. Presenting a successful coverage claim requires legal analysis of the policy language, the tender of claims in compliance with notice requirements, and often, litigation or arbitration against carriers that disclaim coverage. Environmental coverage litigation is a specialized field, and the quality of legal representation matters.
  4. Don’t assume the absence of evidence means absence of coverage. Many organizations conclude too quickly that they have no historical coverage because internal records do not reflect it. That conclusion is often wrong. Insurance archaeology routinely locates policies that clients believed no longer existed. The absence of a policy in your file room is not proof that the policy was never issued.
  5. Act before regulatory deadlines crystallize liability. The PFAS regulatory storm, including federal CERCLA designations, state hazardous substance programs, and drinking water standards, is already driving rapid identification of PRPs. Once a party has been identified as responsible, the pressure to respond and incur costs escalates. Having historical coverage in place before that moment arrives creates leverage and financial security.
  6. Evaluate your full corporate and operational history. For businesses that have been through mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or reorganizations, the analysis of which entity holds coverage and for which operations require careful historical reconstruction. Insurance archaeology and corporate history reconstruction often go hand in hand, particularly for complex organizations.
  7. Consider the full range of potential claims. Pre-1986 CGL policies may respond not only to environmental cleanup costs under CERCLA or state law, but also to third-party bodily injury and property damage claims, legal defense costs, and regulatory response costs. The full scope of available coverage should be evaluated by qualified counsel.

The PFAS era has arrived. The liability it imposes looks backward in time, to releases that occurred when these compounds were in widespread, lawful use and when the regulatory framework had not yet caught up. The insurance industry, for its part, changed its standard policy form in 1986, but the policies that predate that change remain in force and may provide coverage that is now worth pursuing. For businesses and municipalities that used or released PFAS prior to 1986, conducting a thorough insurance archaeology investigation is not merely prudent; it may be one of the most valuable legal and financial steps they can take.

Edward (Ned) B. Witte, a Partner at Witte Davis Law, is nationally recognized for his work on emerging contaminants and PFAS.

Kristen Drake is President and Lead Insurance Archaeologist at PolicyFind, an insurance archaeology firm.

Lindene Patton is a Partner at Earth & Water Law, LLC, with broad expertise in environmental risk, insurance coverage, and emerging chemical liability.

Endnotes

1 Ian T. Cousins et al., Outside the Safe Operating Space of a New Planetary Boundary for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), 56 Envtl. Sci. & Tech. 11172 (2022). Researchers from Stockholm University and ETH Zurich found that PFAS levels in rainwater, surface water, and soils now globally exceed safety guidelines, including in remote locations such as Antarctica, concluding that PFAS contamination has exceeded a new planetary boundary for chemical pollution.

2 In November 2023, a working group of thirty international scientists convened by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified PFOA as a Group 1 human carcinogen, based on sufficient evidence in experimental animals and strong mechanistic evidence in exposed humans, including immunosuppression and epigenetic alterations, as well as limited evidence of renal cell carcinoma and testicular cancer. PFOS was classified as Group 2B (possibly carcinogenic to humans). See, for example, S. Zahm et al., Carcinogenicity of Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid (PFOS), 25 Lancet Oncology 16 (2024); see, also, the United States Environmental Protection Agency document “Our Current Understanding of the Human Health and Environmental Risks of PFAS,” (last updated on April 21, 2026), https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas,

3 EPA Fuels the PFAS Storm and Moves to Keep CERCLA Rule in Place, Witte Davis Law Blog (2025), available at wittedavis.com.

4 Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds State Cleanup Program and WDNR Authority to Regulate PFAS, Witte Davis Law Blog (2025), available at wittedavis.com.

5 Wisconsin DNR Cites Its Supreme Court-Backed PFAS Authority in Town of Stella Responsible Party Notifications, Witte Davis Law Blog (2025), available at wittedavis.com.

6 In addition to the absolute pollution exclusion, the industry created a “total pollution exclusion” to address court rulings that held that some coverage remained notwithstanding the absolute pollution exclusion. This policy language and interpretation area is highly complicated and complex, with exceptions, grants and rulings that are beyond the scope of this article.

7 See Wolverine World Wide, Inc. v. American Insurance Co., No. 1:19-cv-10, 2021 WL 4841167 (W.D. Mich. Oct. 18, 2021) (holding that a pre-1986 CGL policy’s pollution exclusion did not bar a duty to defend for PFAS releases dating to 1958). Compare Wolverine, however, with Tonoga, Inc. v. New Hampshire Insurance Co., 201 A.D.3d 1091 (N.Y. App. Div. 2022) (holding that the “sudden and accidental” exception did not apply where it could be established that PFAS were knowingly discharged as part of manufacturing processes over a period of many years, illustrating that coverage analysis may turn on the specific facts of the release and the policy language at issue).

8 Kristen Drake, Insurance Archaeology: From Niche to Necessity, PolicyFind (May 2024), available at policyfind.com.

9 Kristen Drake, The Role of Insurance Archaeology in Asbestos Litigation, PolicyFind (September 2025), available at policyfind.com.

10 Kristen Drake, Turning Discovery Into Dollars: Real-World Results of Insurance Archaeology, PolicyFind (December 2025), available at policyfind.com (describing, among other examples, the successful location of a 1981 general liability policy for a business facing state environmental cleanup demands, demonstrating that pre-1986 coverage can be located and applied to environmental response costs even decades after the underlying releases occurred).

Funding PFAS and Groundwater Cleanup: How Historical Insurance Policies May Pay for Environmental Remediation

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Insurance archaeology and historical insurance recovery can identify historical liability insurance that may provide funding for PFAS contamination, groundwater remediation, and long-tail environmental liability claims.

By: James Pawlish

Environmental contamination from PFAS chemicals, solvent releases from dry cleaners, and industrial operations often create significant financial challenges for property owners, municipalities, and businesses.

These liabilities can also affect property transactions, redevelopment financing, and lending decisions when environmental risk becomes tied to the value of a property or business.

Cleanup obligations may arise decades after contamination first occurred, and remediation costs can easily reach millions of dollars. These liabilities are frequently discovered during property or business transactions, due diligence such as Phase I or Phase II Environmental Site Assessments, redevelopment planning, or regulatory investigations and enforcement actions.

Many organizations do not realize that historical insurance policies issued decades ago may still provide coverage for environmental liabilities today. When these policies are identified and reconstructed, they can provide important financial resources for environmental cleanup and legal defense.

For property owners, business owners, environmental attorneys, real estate developers, environmental consultants, latent injury attorneys, municipalities, and financial institutions, historical insurance recovery can be a critical source of environmental remediation funding.

PFAS Insurance Coverage: How Historical Policies May Fund PFAS Cleanup

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) contamination has emerged as one of the most significant environmental issues in the United States. These “forever chemicals” were widely used for decades in firefighting foam, industrial manufacturing, textiles, and consumer products. As regulatory scrutiny continues, PFAS contamination in soil and groundwater is triggering costly investigations and remediation obligations across the country.

Many of these releases occurred during periods when commercial general liability policies provided broader pollution coverage than modern policies. Policies issued prior to the mid-1980s often did not contain the absolute pollution exclusions commonly found in later insurance policies.

However, coverage is not limited only to policies issued before the mid-1980s. The availability of insurance coverage ultimately depends on the specific policy language and the law governing its interpretation. In some jurisdictions, courts have held that ambiguous policy language must be interpreted in favor of the policyholder. As a result, policies issued after the introduction of pollution exclusions may still provide coverage depending on how courts interpret the policy language.

For organizations facing PFAS cleanup obligations today, identifying historical insurance coverage across multiple policy periods can help reduce financial exposure.

Groundwater Contamination and Environmental Liability Claims Can Trigger Multiple Policies

Environmental contamination rarely occurs at a single moment. Instead, it typically develops gradually as pollutants migrate through soil and groundwater over time. Because of this, groundwater contamination and environmental liability claims can involve multiple insurance policies across multiple policy periods.

Industries commonly associated with long-tail environmental exposure include dry cleaning operations using PCE and TCE solvents, manufacturing and industrial facilities, municipal landfills and waste disposal sites, airports and firefighting training facilities, and chemical processing operations. When contamination spans decades, multiple insurance carriers and policy years may be relevant. This can create substantial available coverage for environmental liability claims.

For dry cleaners, property owners, and municipalities dealing with groundwater contamination today, historical liability insurance may represent a significant and often overlooked financial resource.

Potentially Responsible Party Investigations and Insurance Allocation

Environmental contamination often involves more than one responsible party. Former owners, operators, tenants, waste generators, or transporters may all have contributed to contamination at a site.

As a result, environmental liability investigations frequently include identifying Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) and evaluating responsibility among them.

A PRP investigation can uncover prior property owners, former operators, or industrial tenants whose activities contributed to contamination. Once those parties are identified, their historical insurance coverage may become relevant in evaluating potential sources of funding for remediation and defense costs.

For example, a contaminated property may have been owned or operated by several companies over multiple decades. Each of those entities may have maintained liability insurance policies that could respond to environmental claims arising from their period of operation.

Identifying potentially responsible parties and their insurance coverage helps clarify which parties, operations, and policy periods may be relevant. This process can expand the pool of available funding for remediation while also helping insurers evaluate responsibility across multiple policyholders, carriers, and years of coverage.

For environmental attorneys, consultants, municipalities, financial institutions, and insurers, PRP investigations combined with insurance archaeology and historical insurance research often play a critical role in identifying potentially relevant parties and insurance coverage that may contribute to cleanup costs.

Example: When a Property Transaction Reveals PFAS Contamination

Consider a property owner preparing to sell a commercial or industrial property. As part of the buyer’s due diligence process, a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment identifies the potential for PFAS contamination based on historical operations at the site. Further investigation may be recommended, and testing may confirm PFAS impacts to soil or groundwater. At that point, the transaction can become significantly more complex. Buyers, lenders, and regulators may require investigation and remediation before the deal can proceed.

In many cases, the contamination originated decades earlier under prior ownership or during historical industrial operations. Those former owners or operators may have maintained commercial general liability insurance policies during the years when the releases occurred.

Through insurance archaeology, it may be possible to identify and reconstruct historical insurance policies tied to earlier operations. When coverage is confirmed, those policies may help fund environmental investigation, remediation costs, and legal defense related to PFAS or groundwater contamination claims. In some transactions, identifying insurance coverage can help offset remediation costs that might otherwise prevent a deal from moving forward. For property owners, environmental consultants, and real estate attorneys, uncovering historical insurance can significantly change the financial outcome of a transaction involving contaminated property.

Insurance Archaeology and Locating Lost Insurance Policies

One of the biggest challenges in environmental insurance recovery is that many historical policies are no longer readily available. Businesses often retained insurance records for only a limited period, and corporate reorganizations, mergers, and relocations frequently resulted in lost documentation.

Insurance archaeology is the process of locating proofs of the existence, terms, and conditions of lost or mislaid policies. It also involves reconstructing historical insurance coverage through archival research and secondary documentation. Even when the original policy cannot be located, secondary evidence can often establish the existence and terms of historical coverage. Through careful historical insurance research, it is frequently possible to reconstruct insurance programs that were placed decades earlier and identify policies that may respond to environmental liabilities today.

For property owners, municipalities, and lenders evaluating environmental risk, locating lost insurance policies can provide important insight into the potential insurance resources available for a contaminated property.

Environmental Remediation Funding Through Historical Insurance

Environmental remediation frequently involves substantial costs, including site investigations, groundwater treatment systems, soil excavation, and long-term monitoring required by environmental regulators.

Occurrence-based historical liability insurance policies may provide environmental remediation funding for many of these expenses. Depending on the policy language and the law governing the claim, insurance coverage may apply to certain cleanup-related costs, property damage claims, legal defense expenses, and environmental settlements. For contaminated properties undergoing investigation or redevelopment, historical insurance coverage can become an important financial resource when evaluating how remediation work may be funded.

Environmental consultants, attorneys, and property owners often investigate historical insurance as part of a broader strategy for understanding environmental liability and potential funding resources.

Historical Insurance Recovery for Property Owners, Municipalities, and Financial Institutions

Environmental contamination can significantly affect property value, redevelopment plans, and financial risk. Historical insurance recovery can provide important financial resources for a wide range of stakeholders.

  • Property owners and developers may be able to use historical insurance coverage to support remediation efforts and facilitate redevelopment projects.
  • Dry cleaners and small businesses often face historic solvent releases that may be covered under historical liability policies.
  • Municipalities may have coverage for environmental exposure related to landfills, wastewater facilities, and firefighting foam use.
  • Environmental attorneys may rely on insurance archaeology to identify historical policies that may support environmental liability claims and related litigation.
  • Financial institutions may benefit from identifying insurance coverage that helps offset environmental remediation risks associated with contaminated properties.

PFAS Insurance Coverage and Funding for Groundwater Cleanup May Already Exist

Environmental contamination from PFAS groundwater impacts, historic dry-cleaning operations, or industrial pollution often originates decades in the past. Fortunately, the insurance policies issued during those same decades may still provide valuable financial protection.

For organizations facing environmental liability claims, historical insurance investigations may identify liability insurance policies that may support PFAS claims, groundwater cleanup, environmental remediation, contamination claims, and legal defense costs.

These policies can represent significant financial assets that may help support environmental cleanup and address long-tail environmental liabilities.

Explore Whether Historical Insurance Coverage Exists

If your organization is facing PFAS contamination, groundwater remediation obligations, or other environmental liability claims, historical insurance policies may provide a critical source of funding.

Organizations addressing environmental liabilities often begin by investigating whether historical insurance coverage exists for prior owners, operators, or historic operations at the site. Identifying these policies can help evaluate the financial resources that may be available for environmental remediation and legal defense.

PolicyFind assists clients with insurance archaeology and historical insurance recovery, helping locate and reconstruct historical occurrence-based liability insurance policies that may contribute to environmental cleanup funding and long-tail environmental liability claims.

Contact us to learn more about how historical insurance coverage may support your environmental liability matter.

Sexual Abuse and Molestation Litigation: How Historical Insurance Coverage May Fund Defense and Settlements

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Insurance archaeology may help identify historical liability insurance that can support defense and settlement obligations in sexual abuse and molestation claims.

By: James Pawlish

Sexual abuse, assault, and molestation litigation has expanded rapidly in recent years as states reform statutes of limitation and open revival windows, allowing previously time-barred claims to move forward. These legal changes have created significant exposure for institutions such as schools, churches, youth organizations, healthcare providers, nonprofits, and municipalities. Allegations may involve conduct that occurred decades ago, and defending these claims can require substantial financial resources.

These developments have also driven a sharp increase in demand for insurance archaeology. Over the past several years, school districts, youth-based organizations, religious institutions, and municipalities across the country have engaged PolicyFind’s insurance archaeologists to locate historical liability policies that may respond to revived abuse claims.

Many attorneys and institutions are unaware that liability policies issued decades earlier may still provide coverage for defense and settlements today. When these policies are identified and reconstructed through insurance archaeology, they can represent critical financial resources that allow organizations to respond responsibly and compassionately to survivors while addressing complex litigation.

For institutions and counsel handling these matters, identifying historical insurance coverage can play an important role in evaluating what financial resources may be available.

Child Victims Acts and Revival Laws Are Driving New Litigation

One of the primary drivers behind the expansion of sexual abuse litigation is the passage of Child Victims Acts (CVAs) and similar statute-of-limitations reforms across the United States.

Historically, many survivors were unable to pursue civil claims because legal deadlines expired before they were prepared to come forward. In response, numerous states have enacted laws expanding statutes of limitation or opening revival windows that allow previously time-barred claims to proceed.

Several states have played particularly important roles in this legal shift.

New York Child Victims Act (2019)
New York opened a revival window that resulted in thousands of lawsuits involving abuse allegations dating back decades.

New Jersey Child Victims Act (2019)
New Jersey expanded its statute of limitations and opened a revival window that triggered substantial litigation.

Louisiana Child Victims Act (2021)
Louisiana created a revival window allowing survivors to file lawsuits regardless of when the abuse occurred. After legal challenges, the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the law, and the revival window remains open through June 2027.

Maryland Child Victims Act (2023)
Maryland eliminated many restrictions on when survivors may file civil lawsuits. In February 2025, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld the law’s permanent revival window.

Additional legislative activity continues nationwide for civil child sexual abuse claims, while states such as Maine and Vermont have also opened lookback and revival windows. Because many of these lawsuits involve alleged conduct that occurred decades earlier, insurance policies issued during those same periods may now play a central role in addressing the claims.

Sexual Abuse and Molestation Litigation Is Expanding Nationwide

While early waves of sexual abuse litigation were concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and California, organizations nationwide are increasingly confronting historical abuse allegations and examining potential insurance assets that may respond to those claims.

Legislative reforms and evolving legal standards continue to reshape this area of liability nationwide, underscoring the importance of understanding historical insurance programs before claims arise.

These legislative developments can involve allegations tied to:

  • Schools and educational institutions
  • Churches and religious organizations
  • Youth organizations and camps
  • Sports programs and athletic associations
  • Healthcare providers
  • Nonprofit organizations
  • Municipalities and public institutions

In many cases, the alleged misconduct may have occurred decades earlier.

Why Investigating Historical Insurance Coverage is Key

Attorneys handling sexual abuse and molestation litigation on behalf of educational institutions, religious organizations, and nonprofit organizations are increasingly examining historical insurance coverage early in the matter. That’s because many claims involve alleged conduct that occurred decades earlier, and occurrence-based liability policies issued during those same periods may provide coverage for defense costs and settlements or identify financial resources that may help institutions respond to allegations involving earlier policy years.

For attorneys representing survivors, identifying insurance coverage may expand the financial resources available to resolve claims. For defense counsel, early insurance archeology may help identify historical policies before records become harder to locate, witnesses become unavailable, or coverage questions become more difficult to evaluate.

The best time to reconstruct an institution’s historical policies was 20 years ago. The next best time is today.

Sexual Abuse Insurance Coverage May Exist in Historical Liability Policies

Despite the age of many allegations, historical liability insurance policies may still provide coverage for these claims. In many cases, Commercial General Liability (CGL) policies issued decades ago did not contain the sexual abuse or molestation exclusions commonly found in later policies. Depending on the policy language and the facts of the claim, those earlier policies may respond to allegations involving conduct that occurred during the policy period.

Coverage under historical policies may include:

  • Defense costs related to litigation
  • Settlement payments
  • Indemnity obligations
  • Coverage across multiple policy years

Because many allegations involve conduct that allegedly occurred over extended periods, multiple insurance policies and policy years may be triggered.

Insurance Archaeology and Locating Historical Insurance Policies

Many organizations no longer have copies of their historical insurance policies.

Insurance documents may have been discarded, destroyed, or lost during leadership transitions, relocations, or simply through the passage of time.

Insurance archaeology is the specialized practice of locating and documenting evidence of historical insurance policies that may have been lost or destroyed. This work typically requires trained investigators who understand historical insurance markets, legacy policy forms, and the types of records that may contain indirect evidence of coverage.

PolicyFind’s investigations often begin with boots-on-the-ground research, reviewing archived records, storage files, and historical correspondence. Investigators also examine corporate records such as meeting minutes, accounting ledgers, and annual reports while cross-referencing findings with proprietary insurer databases and historical policy libraries. Even when original policies cannot be located, experienced insurance archaeologists can often identify secondary evidence that helps document the existence and terms of historical coverage.

Turning Evidence into a Clear Coverage Map

Once evidence of historical insurance coverage is located, organizing that information becomes equally important. Insurance archaeology investigations typically involve building detailed coverage maps that identify policy periods, insurers, and layers of coverage. This helps legal teams and insurers to evaluate how coverage may apply and helps institutions understand what financial resources may exist.

Explore Whether Historical Insurance Coverage Exists

Organizations facing sexual abuse or molestation claims may have insurance assets that are no longer visible in their records. Investigating historical insurance coverage can help determine whether liability policies issued decades earlier may respond to current claims.

PolicyFind assists attorneys and organizations with insurance archaeology, helping locate and reconstruct legacy insurance policies that may fund defense and settlements related to sexual abuse litigation. Through decades of investigations, PolicyFind has helped institutions uncover long-lost coverage that allows them to respond to difficult situations with integrity and compassion.

Our team conducts confidential insurance archaeology investigations to identify lost or destroyed liability policies that may respond to claims involving conduct alleged to have occurred decades earlier.

Contact PolicyFind to discuss whether historical liability insurance coverage may exist for sexual abuse or molestation claims involving conduct alleged to have occurred decades earlier.