LEGAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE PATENT LAWYERS

LEGAL MALPRACTICE INSURANCE PATENT LAWYERS

Legal Malpractice Insurance Patent Lawyers: aggressive comparison shopping to find you the best coverage and price. Short online application. Fast, free quotes from all major “A”-rated insurers.

Fast Facts:

  • Most solo Patent lawyers pay $3,000 – $3,500 for their first policy. A 2-atty. firm will pay slightly less than double that; a 3-atty. firm, slightly less than triple that, etc. Lower rates are available in DC, GA, NY, PA, and TX, due to increased competition. 
  • The premium is based mainly on your firm’s atty. count, Patent practice areas, policy limits, and county/state.
  • Most solo Patent lawyers, buy policy limits of $500,000 per claim/$1,000,000 for all claims, $1,000,000/$1,000,000, or $1,000,000/$2,000,000. The highest limits that are readily available, are $2,000,000/$2,000,000, which cost about $4,000 for the first policy. Some part-time attorneys carry limits of $250,000/$500,000, which cost about $2,300 for the first policy.

Apply, Quote, Buy:

  • Fill out our short on-line application or download it below.
  • We’ll send your firm’s application to all viable insurers, based on its risk profile (firm size, practice areas, county, etc.), and request proposals at different limits and deductibles, so you can make the optimal choice.
  • We’ll send you a summary of the insurers’ responses, highlighting the best ones, in 3 – 5 business days. We’ll explain the coverage and policy limits, answer your questions, and send you any insurer’s policy to review, if desired.
  • If you want to accept any of the proposals, you’ll have to complete that insurer’s long application to receive binding quotes, which should match the proposals. We’ll fill it out to the extent possible, based on the short application that you submitted, and send it to you to finish.
  • If you accept any insurer’s binding quote, your coverage will be in place.
  • Pay the premium in full or finance it (15% down, followed by 11 monthly payments).

Contact me, if you have any questions or want help with the application:
Curt Cooper, Managing Broker
(202) 802-6415 | ccooper ‘at’ lawyersinsurer.com
Licensed Insurance Producer in CA, DC, GA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, VA, WA, etc.
National Association of Insurance Commissioners Reg. #1017031


We’ll send your application to all of the patent law insurers that offer the best terms:

Jamison/CNA
Jorgensen/Scottsdale (the Firemark program)
Lloyd’s of London
Hudson Insurance Company (select states only)
Arch Insurance Company (maximum limits of $250,000/$500,000)


I.
 Legal Malpractice Insurance Patent Lawyers – Application Help for First-Time Buyers

  1.   Practice areas grid: allocate your billings by percentage per Patent practice area, i.e., 30% domestic patent prosecution, 20% patent infringement counseling, etc.

If your firm has been open for a year or more, then fill out the grid based on your gross billings for the last 12 months. If it’s been open less than 12 months, fill out the grid based on your billings to date, plus your projections for the remainder of your first 12 months.

The application asks when your firm was founded, so the insurers will know if your figures are projections, and they won’t penalize you, if your projections turn out to be inaccurate. When your policy renews next year, you’ll have a year of data, and will be able to report your practice areas accurately.

Your coverage won’t be restricted to the practice areas that you list on the application.

  1.   Risk management: docket/calendaring, conflicts-checking, and use of engagement letters/non-engagement/termination letters.

You won’t get quotes unless you have at least basic risk management procedures in place, so don’t apply until you do.

Even if you don’t handle litigated matters, you’ll still have deadlines to meet, and the insurers will expect you to use a primary and back-up calendar, preferably one designed for patent law practice, i.e., DocketTrak.

If you answer the questions “no”, i.e., you don’t use any calendaring or conflicts-checking tools, or a retainer agreement or engagement letter, then every insurer will decline your application. See #19 on our FAQs page for a list of acceptable tools. Some manual tools are listed, but computerized tools, are preferred.

  1. Back-up attorney: most insurers require sole practitioners to have a back-up; several insurers require the back-up’s name and address.

The person’s role is to contact your clients and any other relevant parties, and obtain any necessary postponement/extension until you return, if you incur an accident, illness, etc., that leaves you unable to handle your cases. In an extreme situation, the back-up will arrange for replacement counsel, or take over your cases, although that’s not required.

There’s virtually no liability risk, because the back-up doesn’t establish an atty.-client relationship, unless he/she takes over the cases.

Any attorney USPTO-admitted atty. will suffice, preferably one who’s also barred in your state of domicile. 

II. Legal Malpractice Insurance Patent Lawyers – How Our Process Benefits You

Does your firm have the best possible terms on its malpractice insurance, i.e., the broadest coverage at the best price?

The only way to find out is to test the market.

That’s where we come in.

We submit each firm’s application to all viable insurers, based on its risk profile, and obtain proposals at the firm’s current terms, and at policy limits one or more levels higher. If the best proposals are close, we solicit another round of proposals from the ‘finalists’.

This aggressive comparison shopping lets us consistently obtain much better coverage and pricing for firms than they currently have.

More than a dozen major insurers cover Pennsylvania firms, and they compete fiercely for good risks. If your firm hasn’t incurred a claim in five or more years, and hasn’t shopped for competing quotes in two or more years, then one or more of those insurers will likely offer it much better terms than it currently has.

CNA/Columbia Casualty, Scottsdale, Lloyd’s of London, and Hudson (in selected states) usually offer the best terms to Patent Law firms.

To obtain no-cost, no-obligation quotes from these and other ‘A’-rated legal malpractice insurers, send us your most recent application, or complete our short application, either online or by downloading it.

We’ll help you compare the competing quotes to your current terms, and make the best decision.

There’s no risk, and a potentially great reward.

III. Legal Malpractice Insurance Patent Lawyers – Learn More or Request Proposals 

It’ll give the insurers enough information about your practice to offer “ballpark” terms, without your having to complete a full application.

We’ll send your form to all suitable insurers, and contact you as they respond. If you like any of the estimates that we obtain, then you can complete a full application and provide any other information that the insurer needs to offer you a firm quote. The final quote usually matches or is very close to the estimate.

NOTES:

•   If you filled out an application or premium estimate form for another broker or any insurer, you can send us that, instead of filling out our form.

• All proposals that we obtain for you are no-cost, no-obligation.

If you accept any of them, then the insurer that offered it will pay us a percentage of the premium as a commission.

That’s our only compensation; we don’t charge any fees.

We thus have every incentive to find you the best terms available in the market.

IV. Attorney Feedback

“I recently worked with Curtis…I thought he did an excellent job staying in touch with me and giving me fair advice, without pressure to purchase anything in particular…he actually advised me to simply renew with my current carrier, despite the fact that it would not have led to any monetary compensation for him…” (Rating: 5 stars out of 5.)

Full review: http://www.yelp.com/biz/lawyers-insurance-group

We received this email from the owner of a law firm for whom we procured malpractice coverage after its existing coverage was non-renewed:
“From beginning to end, you have served us so well, keeping me informed every step of the way.  Thank you Curtis!  I will recommend you without hesitation to any lawyer in need of a professional insurance broker.”

V. Who We Serve

  • New IP law firms, including solo practices.
  • Established firms of all sizes and in all IP practice areas.

VI. Legal Malpractice Insurance Explained

VII. Reduce Your Risk of Committing Legal Malpractice

Calendaring/Docketing Best Practices

Conflict of Interest Avoidance Best Practices

Engagement Letter/Retainer Agreement Best Practices

Billing Practices to Increase Realization Rates and Avoid Fee Suits

Patent Law Risk Management