Primary Navigation
Changing Landscape of Professional Liability Insurance
Not all lawyers maintain professional liability insurance. This scenario, however, is slowly changing. As reported in an article by the ABA Journal, some 25 states had some form of liability disclosure requirement as of April 2010. In 2004, only nine states required such disclosure.
According to the article, the ABA House of Delegates approved a ruling in 2004 that, if adopted at the state level, would dictate that lawyers in private practice report whether they carried insurance on their annual registration statements. There were exemptions to the rule. It didn't apply to government lawyers and lawyers who exclusively represent organizational clients, as well as to lawyers who are not engaged in the “active practice of law.”
As more states adopt some form of insurance disclosure requirement, there is one state that mandates lawyers carry liability insurance: Oregon.
According to the ABA Journal story, Oregon's mandated liability insurance policy was created in 1977, when the Legislature passed a statute authorizing the state bar to implement the mandatory insurance requirement and create a wholly owned subsidiary to sell coverage to Oregon's lawyers.
“Lawyers must purchase a policy from the bar's Professional Liability Fund that provides coverage of $300,000 both per claim and in the aggregate, according to Jeff Crawford, the fund's director of administration. More than half of Oregon's lawyers also buy excess coverage. Lawyers in smaller firms tend to purchase that coverage from the state fund, while larger firms often purchase it on the outside market.”
Top
