Law firms that want to include mandatory arbitration provisions in their client engagement agreements must explain to the client the benefits and disadvantages of arbitrating a prospective dispute, the New Jersey state supreme court held late last year — and merely providing a link to the arbitration rules doesn’t satisfy the requirement, the court said.
Ethics and risk management: What will the “new normal” look like?
When we scheduled our daughter’s wedding for March 15 in New York City, little did we know how surreal the world would be by then. The wedding did happen, with a much-reduced number of guests, hand sanitizer on each table, and with the hora joyously danced with gloves on. The next day, the governor banned
Measure twice cut once: 10th Circuit decides malpractice policy doesn’t cover overbilling claims
As the legal market continues to change, attorneys face more challenges when it comes to client relations. While the trend has been for clients to slash attorney’s fees by hiring third party auditors to review bills, or to aggressively seek discounts on fees, ethical considerations, and now the United States Court of Appeals for the
Do you know your rule on malpractice insurance disclosure?
Only one jurisdiction in the nation — Oregon — requires lawyers to carry legal malpractice insurance. But all the other states have varying requirements about malpractice insurance and disclosing whether or not you carry it. Knowing the rule in your jurisdiction is vital to staying out of ethics trouble.
Disclosure data
A helpful piece by
No privilege for communications by risk manager who was also a lawyer
Corporate organization
charts increasingly include slots for departments with names like “risk management,” “claims handling,” and the like. When lawyers head or staff such departments, does the attorney-client privilege cover their communications with company management? Not necessarily, says a new opinion from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Casey v. Unitek Global Services, Inc.
Sex discrimination
No insurance coverage for attorneys’ fees that were ordered as a “sanction”
If you or your firm were ordered to pay a party’s legal fees as a “sanction” for professional misconduct, would your professional liability insurance cover that payment?
In a recent case, the district court for the Northern District of Illinois left a law firm high and dry, holding that the policy exclusion for sanctions meant
Reminder: check for client’s insurance, or you may be liable for malpractice
Failing to check whether the claim against your client might be covered by insurance can get you in hot water — or at least keep you there, preventing a speedy exit from a malpractice suit, as a Florida lawyer recently learned.
In Pharma Supply, Inc. v. Stein (PACER access ID required), the client alleged it