One of the more unwieldy of legal fictions is the so-called tripartite relationship among the insured, the insurer, and the defense counsel defending the insured against the claim. Duties run every which way in the relationship, and this beast is at its most cantankerous when one gets into the question of how the attorney client
Coverage Counsel
Attorney’s Fee Awards, and the Duty to Indemnify
I have written before about the American Rule – which requires parties to a lawsuit, in the absence of a fee shifting statute or contractual agreement, to pay their own legal fees – and the exception under Massachusetts law that runs in favor of insureds who prevail in coverage cases against their insurers. The Supreme…
Investment Management Fees, and Contract Geeks
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Two things to chew on over the holiday, other than the turducken (I have always wanted to use that word in a sentence), one to know about before it occurs, the other to note before it disappears. I guess I could take that dichotomy a little further, and note that one concerns the first half…
The Attorney-Client Privilege in Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Lawsuits
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Like all of you, I am sure, I receive almost daily pitches in my in-box for seminars, podcasts, books and publications that promise to educate me on various topics that the pitchers have decided I must be interested in. Of course, these may be the same marketing wizards who send me twenty pitches a day…
Insurance Coverage Trial Exhibits
I added a new category today, Insurance Coverage Trials, as a place to collect useful tips, ideas and articles on trying insurance coverage cases that might be useful to readers of this blog who either try such cases or hire (and thereafter manage) lawyers who try such cases. What prompted this idea was a long…
Coverage Lawyers, and How to Pay Them
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Coverage Counsel, Coverage Litigation
It seems like everyone is weighing in on the question of billable hours and alternative fee arrangements these days. My colleague and occasional lunch companion – and forceful proselytizer for abandoning the billable hour – Chris Marston weighed in on his blog the other day on the evils of the billable hour and his belief…
Objectivity in Providing Coverage Advice
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Coverage Counsel
With too much on my plate at the beginning of the week, I told David Rossmiller that I was not going to borrow from his terrific post early this week on the thought process needed to provide advice on coverage issues. As the week has gone by, however, I find myself regularly returning to it.…
Insurance Coverage Counsel and the Repeat Player
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Coverage Counsel
I often mention in seminars and meetings a point that I call “the insurance company and the repeat player.” In doing so, my intent is to emphasize to insureds and their usual counsel the importance of retaining experienced insurance coverage lawyers to represent them when issues arise involving insurance coverage and insurance policies, whether they…