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News and Views |
Liability insurance, lawyers, & pitfalls |
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Columnists and Correspondents Malpractice and Risk Management |
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Thank you, Ken, for your helpful, informative posting. It is frightening the extent to which we remain in denial about our malpractice exposure, about the systems of litigation, and about our options. Your posting helps us remain aware and focused. There is also additional good news for the those of us who live in California. Yes, we have the San Andreas fault and no really good system to predict earthquakes. But we also have something called Cumis Counsel. This is named for the 1984 case of San Diego Federal Credit Union v. Cumis Ins. Society, Inc. This case established that when the insurance carrier reserves the right to cover a claim, you--the defendant--are entitled to have the insurance carrier pay for an additional attorney, of your choice, to protect your rights when your rights may be at odds with those of the insurance carrier. It's a weird kind of California thing, and I don't know if similar laws apply in other states. I have worked on some malpractice cases where I was retained due to the efforts of the Cumis counsel, where the Cumis counsel was more knowledgeable and aggressive than the counsel drawn from the insurance carrier's stable. Other than this loophole, it is really frustrating when you know that a really great attorney is out there, but you have to accept the one selected by your insurance carrier. |