What To Know About Lawyers Professional Liability
Lawyers Professional Liability – A Definition Often lawyers need and/or want to be able to reassure clients that the firm carries substantial insurance protection. Excess professional liability insurance is a key way for the firm to provide that assurance, and protect themselves against exposures over and above the mandatory LAWPRO limit of $1,000,000 per claim / $2,000,000 aggregate.
Lawyers professional liability insurance is a type of liability coverage designed to protect professionals against liability insured as a result of errors and omissions in performing their professional services.
Most lawyers professional liability insurance policies only cover economic or financial losses suffered by third parties, as opposed to bodily injury (BI) and property damage (PD) claims. This is because the latter two types of loss are typically covered under commercial general liability (CGL) policies. The majority of lawyers professional liability insurance policies are written with claims-made coverage triggers and often contain what are known as “shrinking limits”, meaning that unlike CGL policies (where defense costs are typicall paid in addition to policy limits), the insurer’s payment of defense costs reduces available policy limits.
3 Common Exclusions
Accordingly, when attempting to determine appropriate excess professional liability insurance policy limits, insureds must consider the fact that because defense costs are often a high proportion of any claim settlement or judgment, they must usually purchase additional limits. The most common exclusions in lawyers professional liability policy forms are for bodily injury, property damage and intentional/dishonest acts.
An ALIGNED Advocate can provide expert guidance about excess lawyers’ professional liability insurance as well as risk management best practices for your organization. Talk to one of our advocates today about how we can help you secure the best products, services and insurance solutions for your firm.
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