Celesq® Programs

How to Properly Plead Into and Prove Insurance Coverage and Panel Counsel Ethical Conflicts

Active
Program Number
3492
Program Date
2024-06-05
CLE Credits
1

Many neophyte plaintiff’s lawyers who file civil liability actions anticipating that defendants’ valid liability insurance will fund a settlement or judgment need to understand how liability insurers routinely seek to deny coverage to their policyholders and injured plaintiffs. 

The first thing liability insurers do is to answer three questions:  Does the insurer have:

1)    A duty to defend?

2)    A duty to indemnify?

3)    The right to control the policyholder’s defense? 

Because the answer to these questions derives from a comparison of the language of the insurance policy to the language of the plaintiff’s complaint and proof, plaintiffs’ counsel often has vast power to secure valuable insurance coverage. 

This program will address how lawyers may properly advance goals of pleading and proving covered damages, correcting pleading defects, developing truthful evidence, and perhaps exposing actual conflicts of interest pursuant to Rules 1.4 and 1.7 that may ethically disqualify the insurer’s pre-approved panel counsel from protecting the insurer’s interests to the detriment of the plaintiff and the policyholder.

Available in States

  • California
  • Colorado
  • Florida
  • Georgia
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • Texas Self Study

Program Categories

  • Ethics & Professionalism
  • Federal Courts
  • Florida Eligible
  • Insurance Law

PROGRAM CREDITS

  • Areas of Professional Practice : 0.5 Credit
  • Legal Ethics : 0.5 Credit