Hundreds of thousands of times per year, defendants are sued whose insurers have reserved their rights to later deny coverage and have appointed panel defense counsel, who may be ethically disqualified from representing the interests of both the insurer and the policyholder. Rules of Professional Conduct 1.4 (disclosure), 1.7 (undivided loyalty) and 1.6 (confidentiality) empower policyholders to regain control of their own defense, and incentivize reserving insurers and panel counsel to support fully funding prompt settlements, at no cost to the policyholder, in as little as a few weeks.
This two-hour course will meld objective legal research with useful practice pointers to guide policyholders and their independent lawyers to enforce their rights, firmly, but politely - all without coverage litigation.
Stephen Thomas specializes in insurance coverage for business litigation. Steve’s undergraduate degree is from Brown University in 1970, and his law degree is from Washington University in St. Louis in 1974.
Principal fields of study include duty to defend, conflicts of interest, reservations of rights, the right to independent (Cumis) counsel, lawyers’ ethical obligations, reasonableness of attorney fees, insurer reimbursement claims, good faith reliance on counsel, insurer good or bad faith, and insurance coverage in complex civil litigation.
(#0 Minutes) - Introduction: Hypothetical example of ethical conflicts created by reservation of
rights
(#3) - Who Should Take This Course?
(#5) - The Narrow Situation
(#7) - Non-litigation Goals
(#9) - Definitions of terms
(#10) - Well Established Law
(#12) - Universal Rules of Professional Conduct
(#15) - Disparate Case Law
(#18) - Strategies
(#21) - Power – Burden – Proof – Timing
(#26) - Basic Principles Supply Policyholder Power
(#30) - How to trigger the duty to defend
(#33) - Failure to defend may compel payment of adverse judgment
(#36) - Insurer may forfeit coverage defenses without reservation of rights
(#40) - Dependent counsel must comply with Canons of Ethics
(#43) - Performing insurer may seek reimbursement
(#46) - Universal Rules of Professional Conduct
(#49) - ABA and California Rules Are Uniform
(#51) - Rule 1.4: Communication
(#55) - Rule 1.7: Undivided Loyalty
(#1:00) - Rule 1.8: Compensation (Cal. 1.8.6)
(#1:05) - All Of Six Prongs Of Rule 1.4 Must Be Satisfied
(#1:10) - All Of Six Prongs Of Rule 1.7 Must Be Satisfied
(#1:15) - To Get Paid, Dependent Counsel Must Comply With Rule 1.8
(#1:20) - Disparate Case Law
(#1:21) - California (Restatement) Rule
(#1:25) - Per Se Rule
(#1:30) - Enhanced Duties Rule
(#1:35) - How Policyholders Win
(#1:38) - Power; Burden; Proof; Timing
(#1:40) - Develop Admissible Evidence
(#1:42) - The policyholder does the work
(#1:44) - Ethics are owed to vulnerable client
(#1:46) - Policyholder counsel voice hurts the effort
(#1:48) - Record telephone and Zoom calls
(#1:50) - Withhold consent until ethical compliance
(#1:52) - The Primary Jurisdiction Doctrine
(#1:55) - Tools to Achieve Non-litigation Goals
(#1:57) - Insurance Industry Defenses
If you intend to take a course for CLE credit, please make sure your state is listed in the "Accreditation" section to the upper right of the program description. Accreditation displayed is unique to the purchased program format (live conference, live webcast, on demand, podcast). Credit totals listed for live conferences are the maximum credits available. Credits issued will be based upon actual time in attendance. Credit totals for other formats are for complete programs. Partial credit is not available for any online or downloadable format.
West LegalEdcenter will not provide accreditation for states not listed.
