Do you need to hire your own attorney?

If you or your business has been sued and is being defended by an insurance company, you’ve been appointed an attorney by the insurance company to defend you. That attorney has ethical obligations to both you and the insurance company. If there are issues between you and the insurance company, the insurance company’s appointed lawyer cannot get in the middle of them. For that reason, someone may have already suggested that you retain personal counsel.

Personal counsel is an attorney that only represents you. Personal counsel can help convince an insurance company to settle a lawsuit that threatens you or your business with personal exposure. Personal counsel also gets involved when the insurance company is saying it may not cover the claim, or has reserved the rights to pull out from defending you or your business.

Personal counsel services

We serve as personal counsel for clients. We make sure that clients’ concerns are addressed by the insurance company, including when there is a need for confidentiality. We also respond to reservation of rights letters sent by insurance companies and assist in ensuring that mutually agreeable counsel are appointed.

If there is a dispute over whether a claim should be covered, we also help. We defend our clients against declaratory judgment actions. We give advice about how to handle situations where the insurance company isn’t giving any real assurances.

If you think you might need personal counsel, please reach out to us and we can talk about whether we can help you and how it will work.