Legal Malpractice Insurance: Claims-Made Coverage, Part 4 of 5: Avoiding Gaps

Legal Malpractice Insurance Avoiding Claims Made Coverage GapsLast time, we saw how switching malpractice in-surers can create a gap in a law firm’s coverage, when a claim scenario such this arises:

I. The Great law firm bought a legal malpractice policy from Big Insurer effective January 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012, and renewed it for January 1, 2013 – December 31, 2013, and January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014, but switched to Huge Insurer on January 1, 2015.

II. A Great lawyer represented client Smith from February 15, 2013 – May 1, 2014. On March 5, 2015, Smith notified the Great firm that he planned to sue it for malpractice. The firm reported the claim to Big Insurer on March 9, 2015, and then to Huge Insurer.

Both insurers denied coverage: Big Insurer, because the claim was reported to it after its policy with the Great firm had expired (December 31, 2014), as had the 60-day grace period to report claims after the policy expiration date (March 2, 2015), and Huge Insur-er, because the wrongful acts occurred before its policy with the Great firm had begun.

How could the Great firm have avoided this gap?

I. Buy an Extended Reporting Period (ERP) endorsement from its former insurer (Big Insurer), which would allow it to report claims for 1 – 5 years or in perpetuity after ter-minating its coverage, depending on which option it buys.

The endorsement “applies only to claims first made against you and first reported to us on or after the policy termination date”December 31, 2014 in this example – and “the claim (must arise out of) an act or omission occurring prior to the end of the Policy Per-iod”, – again, December 31, 2014 – and on or after the policy’s retroactive date – January 1, 2012 in this example.

What would’ve happened if the Great firm had bought the ERP endorsement, even for one year?  Let’s apply the 3-condition test:

Condition #1: the wrongful act(s) that gave rise to the claim occurred between February 15, 2013 – May 1, 2014, the period of representation, which is after the policy’s retro-active date of January 1, 2012. Pass.
Condition #2: the claim was made on March 5, 2015, after the Great firm’s policy term-ination date of December 31, 2014, but the 1-year ERP extends the period in which claims can be made against it to January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015. Pass.
Condition #3: The firm reported the claim to Big Insurer on March 9, 2015, which be-cause it bought the ERP, is within the allowable reporting period of January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015. Pass.

Conclusion: assuming no policy exclusions, etc., apply, this claim is covered under the Great firm’s legal malpractice policy with Big Insurer.

However, ERP coverage is expensive, typically 125% of the annual premium for a one year ERP, rising to 300% for a perpetual ERP.

Also, whatever limit is left on the expiring policy carries over to the ERP. If/when that limit is exhausted by defense costs and indemnity payments made by Big Insurer to resolve malpractice claims, the Great firm will have no further coverage under that policy, even if it bought a multi-year ERP that still has years to go. In other words, buying an ERP doesn’t buy fresh policy limits. 

Further, the Great firm would still have to buy a policy to cover it for any malpractice that it commits after 12/31/14.

II. Buy Prior Acts coverage from its new insurer, i.e., Huge Insurer, which resets the policy retroactive date to before the inception of coverage, i.e., back to when the Great firm first had continuous coverage, which is January 1, 2012, when it bought its first legal malpractice policy from Big Insurer.

This would be the retroactive date of its policy with Huge insurer, if it bought Prior Acts coverage; otherwise, it would be the same as the policy inception date of January 1, 2015, i.e., it would have no retroactive coverage.

Now let’s apply the 3-condition test to the above claim scenario:
Condition #1: the wrongful act(s) that gave rise to the claim occurred between February 15, 201 – May 1, 2014, which is on or after the policy’s retroactive date of January 1, 2012. Pass.
Condition #2: the claim was made on March 5, 2015, during the current policy period of January 1, 2015 – December 31, 2015. Pass.
Condition #3: The firm reported the claim to Huge Insurer on March 9, 2015, which is during the same policy period in which it was made. Pass.

Conclusion: the Great law firm is covered for this claim is under its policy with Huge Insurer, subject to any policy exclusions, etc.

Further, Prior Acts coverage costs less than an ERP, and is generally the better choice for law firms that switch malpractice insurers.

Note: Insurers won’t provide Prior Acts coverage unless the insured attests that it’s unaware of any pending claims against it, or of any incidents that could lead to a claim, i.e., an adverse outcome or a missed statute of limitations. If it is aware of a pending or potential claim, it must disclose that on its application, and the new insurer won’t cover it.

Thus, Huge Insurer would deny coverage for the above claim if client Smith had threat-ened to sue the Great firm for malpractice prior to 1/1/15, Great’s first day of coverage with Huge, or if the Great attorney who worked with Smith knew before that date that he/she had made an error that could result in Smith making a claim.

In either case, the Great firm should have immediately reported Smith’s threatened or potential suit to Big Insurer, its malpractice insurer at the time.

Here are all five posts in this series:

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