February 7, 2012
It’s no secret that insurance companies hire from among the best attorneys available, and those attorneys defend you when you get into a legal incident covered by a liability policy that you have secured. But you might ask these two questions: Is it still cost effective to get such legal defense through an insurance policy and what policies does a business need to secure to get the best legal guns to defend themselves in a given situation?
If you get an attorney demand letter or any kind of notice of legal action, who do you call? Well you can always call an attorney who might be a friend, done a trust for you, or might have put together some contracts for you, but would they be the best litigation attorney for you if it came to that?
Keep in mind the plaintiff will probably know if you have a qualified attorney or not and that will dictate how they will proceed and how much they are willing to settle for. The less qualified your attorney is, the more leverage the opposition will have against you and the more likely it is that they will drag out a settlement or even take the case to litigation. The worst part of this is when these legal issues take away time and distract you from running your business.
The bottom line:
Hiring an attorney yourself can be very costly when compared with the benefits of going through your insurance company. Insurance company claims departments handle these kinds of incidents every day, and they know exactly how to keep costs low without compromising on skill. They specialize in managing attorneys and claims incidents.
The bottom line is, they are so efficient that it costs them less to settle than it will ever cost you doing it by yourself. This savings is built into the cost of the premium for liability coverage. The good news is, this cost is capped every year for whatever your insurance policy premium is. By not having a policy, legal expenses can easily run into six figures, even before any settlement or litigation takes place. Also, in many cases those taking action against you, most especially if it is frivolous, would rather not face an insurance company attorney and this puts you in a much better position.
Does a liability policy cover every incident? Of course not, but you can mitigate your legal risks by making sure you have the right policies in place.
Here are the most common policies that your business will need to cap your legal exposure:
- General Liability (GL)
- Employment Practices Liability (EPLI)
- Errors & Omissions Coverage (E&O)
- Directors & Officers Liability (D&O)
- Pollution Liability
- Auto Liability
Each business is different, which is why it’s so important to review all potential exposures with your agent to determine if any of these exposures can be covered by insurance. A business owner truly gets a great bang for their buck when having these liability policies because as mentioned earlier, you are dealing with experts who know how to leverage their expertise most effectively.
These types of insurance policies also bring more certainty to your business, the premium is all you pay, you have no worries of losing your business or facing significant setbacks due to spending tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars defending and paying claims that most people have no idea how to handle.
Doherty Duggan and Rouse Insurors proudly offers services throughout Georgia in Macon, Albany, Athens, Warner Robins, and Cordele.
Doherty, Duggan and Rouse Insurors
2301 Dawson Rd
Albany, GA 31707
Phone: 800 628 2040
email: rdoherty@ddrins.com
