According to the University of Pennsylvania’s COVID Coverage Litigation Tracker, policy holders have filed over 1,000 business interruption lawsuits against insurance companies since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it has been six months since a pandemic was declared, the virus continues to wreak havoc on many businesses, and consequently, new business interruption lawsuits are being filed every week.

Like many other businesses, some insurance companies have included arbitration clauses in certain of their contracts, including in contracts with policy holders. This is true of both domestic and foreign insurers. The question is whether those arbitration clauses are enforceable. The answer, which depends on multiple factors, may not be clear in some cases.