It is a team effort. CNA is the underwriter that provides the contract form, the capital surplus, actuarial guidance and the expert claims management. Gilsbar is the regional administrator for the legal malpractice insurance policy and provides the consultation, underwriting services, administration, sales and program management. Each of these two partners has more than 50 years of experience in their respective roles.

CNA is an Insurer comprised of a number of insurance companies. Continental Casualty Company is the CNA company that specializes in writing lawyer’s professional liability coverage. While your carrier is Continental Casualty Company, most people just refer to it as CNA.

A. M. Best is the definitive authority on insurance company security and their rating system is the industry standard. Their rating has essentially two parts: financial strength and financial size. The financial strength (ability to meet its obligations) rating system is a series of 16 codes (letters and symbols), ranging from A++ (Superior) to D (Poor). The financial size categories are a series of 15 Roman Numerals that identify the statutory surplus of the carrier. These ratings range from I (less than $1 Million) up to XV (greater than $2 Billion). Many professionals advise that you seek a company that is rated A- VIII or higher.

The rating is A XV. The adjectives that A. M. Best uses to describe the company is "Excellent". The financial size component XV is the largest category in the system.

Admitted insurance companies follow the rules and regulations of the insurance departments of the respective states in which these companies write insurance. They also file (with those insurance departments) the rates and forms that they intend to use. Because they follow all of the requirements, they are protected by the Guarantee Associations established in the states. If a company does not want to conform to the insurance department requirements, it will operate on a non-admitted (aka surplus lines) basis. The states will tax the premiums that non-admitted companies write and those taxes are paid by the insurance buyer. Non-admitted companies are also not protected by the Guarantee Associations.

Continental Casualty Company is admitted.

In the insurance world, there are two basic contract types: Claims-made and Occurrence. These are fundamentally different in the way that they trigger coverage for a claim. Occurrence policies (such as your automobile or homeowners policy) provide coverage for damage that occurs during the policy period, regardless of when the damage is discovered, if notice is made within a reasonable time. The other coverage triggering mechanism (and generally the only one available for attorney’s professional liability coverage) is claims-made. In contrast to the occurrence form, the claims made contract provides coverage for claims for which the insurer receives notice during the policy period, irrespective of when the damage occurred.

Yes.

It may be covered, but that will depend upon your prior acts date (aka retroactive date).

Both terms mean the same thing. The prior acts (or retroactive date) date establishes how far back into the past, your lawyer’s professional liability policy will cover your acts or omissions. If your policy does not have a prior acts date that will generally mean that there is no limit to how far in the past your policy will provide coverage. If you have been maintaining proper coverage since you began practicing, you will probably have either no prior acts date limitation or one sufficiently far in the past so as to allow coverage, even if the event happened a long time ago. However, if you do not have attorney’s malpractice insurance coverage now, any new coverage will normally be written with a prior acts date that is the same as the inception date of the new policy.

The amount of legal malpractice insurance coverage you purchase should be guided by your own philosophies about risk-taking, your financial wherewithal, and the types of risk you face in your practice. There is no magic formula to calculate the limit. Two lawyers with virtually the same circumstances can each come up with different, but reasonable limits. Your risk will probably relate to what is emotionally, economically, and physically at stake in your underlying representations. You know your practice, the type of cases that you handle and your clients better than anyone else. The underwriter will set a maximum available for your firm (normally based on firm size), but below that maximum level you should choose the limit for your lawyers professional liability insurance that best balances the cost to your comfort level.

Under normal circumstances, you may only change your attorney’s professional liability coverage limit on the annual anniversary date. This obviously adds importance to the decision that you make at the time that you are renewing your legal malpractice insurance policy. Exceptions to this once annually change provision can occur with underwriter approval if the request ultimately comes from a potential or current client who requires a higher limit as a condition of representation. The underwriter will generally require documentation from the client.

When your insurance company handles a claim for you, it will provide money for the settlement or judgment; and it will also pay for legal and claim related expenses. An important question is whether those legal and claim related expenses must come out of your lawyer’s professional liability insurance policy limit. If your policy has a provision called “Claim Expenses Inside the Limit, (CEIL),” then the insurance company is paying those legal and claim related expenses out of your limit and the amount available to pay the settlement or judgment is reduced by that amount. If your attorney’s malpractice insurance policy has a provision called “Claim Expenses Outside the Limit, (CEOL),” then the insurance company is paying those legal and claim related expenses outside of your limit.

If CEOL is not available, you can then choose (within the available alternatives) a somewhat higher limit that is adequate to pay the legal and claim related expenses and still be adequate to pay the settlement or judgment.

If your policy has Claims Expenses Outside of the Limit, your lawyer’s professional liability insurance company will pay the expenses of defending you without reducing your limit of liability. When the time comes for paying the settlement or judgment, your limit will still be fully available. It is important to note that some legal malpractice insurance companies will establish a separate limit that caps the claim expenses that are payable outside of the limit; while others leave the available amount uncapped.

The first consideration for your attorney’s professional liability coverage is that you should choose a deductible that you can afford to pay. Raising the deductible will generally lower the premium, although sometimes the savings are not as much as you might expect. Deductibles may be “per claim,” (applying in full to each claim); or they may be “aggregate,” (applying only once in a policy year, regardless of the number of claims). Aggregate deductibles are not always available and when they are available, the legal malpractice insurance premium with the aggregate deductible is higher than it would have been with a per claim deductible.

Yes, an Extended Reporting Period Endorsement is informally referred to as Tail Coverage. Under certain circumstances, this feature can be useful because claims-made lawyer’s professional liability policies cover only claims made and reported during the policy period. This means that regardless of when the act or omission giving rise to the claim occurred, if the claim is not reported during the legal malpractice insurance policy period or a brief specified period (usually 30 or 60 days) after expiration, then that claim is not covered. Therefore most insurers offer Optional Extended Reporting Period Endorsements for specified periods of time. For example, an attorney might purchase a 24-month ERP or a 36-month ERP. It should be noted that these ERPs do not extend the attorney’s professional liability policy period, change the scope of coverage provided, or increase the insurer’s limits of liability. ERPs only extend the time available for reporting the claim.

Calculating the premium involves many factors. The primary factors are the number of attorneys in the firm and how many “years of prior acts” that each will have covered. In addition, the limit and the deductible that you choose will be significant. Equally significant are your claims history and the firm’s practice areas. Beyond those major points, further modification to the premium will be based upon your level of specialization, insurance history, suits for fees, disciplinary proceedings, and even your internal controls such as docket control and conflict checking systems. Your attorney’s malpractice insurance premium will be unique to your firm.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes to both questions.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. The application only asked you to categorize your practice during the preceding year. The policy covers you for claims resulting from an act or omission in the performance of legal services. It is not limited to the practice areas listed on your attorney’s malpractice insurance application.

Yes. The CNA lawyer’s professional liability policy applies to an act or omission taking place anywhere in the world, provided that the claim is made and suit is brought against the Insured within the United States of America, including its territories, possessions, Puerto Rico or Canada.

For most firms that submit a fully completed application along with a copy of their letterhead, we will provide the quote in 24 to 48 hours. Larger firms or firms that request high limits may take a little longer. The key step in achieving a quick turn-around is to fully answer each question on the lawyer’s professional liability application.

Once you accept the quote and we receive your payment, we will immediately write your attorney’s malpractice insurance policy. If you would like to receive the Declarations Page that same day, simply request that and we will e-mail (preferred) or fax it to you.

There are two options. You may pay the full premium or sign a premium finance agreement. Several alternatives for the financing may be selected, but the most frequently used is a 10% down payment plus 10 monthly payments.

The specimen copy is available upon request. The easiest way to get the copy is to ask your GilsbarPRO sales representative who will immediately e-mail it to you.

You will need to send us written notification of the new or additional location, along with a copy of the new letterhead that reflects the change.

There are two reasons. First, your application along with whatever other information that you provide to the insurance company becomes part of your policy. The legal malpractice insurance policy is issued in reliance upon your representations. You certainly will want that information to be both current and accurate. Second, every firm’s premium is individually computed using multiple factors that obviously change from year to year.

Legal malpractice insurance claims should be reported in writing directly to CNA. If you have received suit papers, these should be sent along with a detailed letter of explanation from a partner or principal of the firm. If suit has not been filed or if the papers are not yet available, you should submit the written description with all known details, (i. e. the client, the specific act or omission, the dates and all persons involved, how you learned of the claim and any facts that you consider particularly important). Send this submission to:

CNA Insurance Companies
Lawyer’s Professional Liability Claims
CNA Center: 333 S. Wabash, 39 South
Chicago, IL 60685

The CNA lawyer’s professional liability policy allows these changes during the policy year, without the need for interim reporting. The only requirement is that the roster be completely up-to-date when the renewal application is submitted. New lawyers will need to complete a new lawyer form and these can be submitted with your renewal application. However, many firms find that it is easiest to get the new lawyer to complete the form on the day he joins the firm and they therefore make it a practice to submit the form to us when the hire is made. We appreciate this practice and it serves to make your completion of the renewal attorney’s malpractice insurance application a little easier.