Limitations On Privilege When Attorneys Act As Claims Handlers

Reprinted with permission from The John Liner Review, Volume 22, Number 1; Spring 2008.
Copyright 2008, Standard Publishing Corp., Boston, MA. All rights reserved. www.spcpub.com

Policyholders Should Be Prepared To Pursue The Disclosure To Which They Are Entitled To Determine Whether Their Claim Has Been Handled Accurately

Since the mid-1990s, and especially since the rush of insurance claims following the September 11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies increasingly have turned to outside counsel to assist or supervise the handling of all sorts of insurance claims. On some level, it makes sense for an insurance company to turn to attorneys for help in responding to a set of claims that present common fact patterns and questions of policy interpretation. Yet the decision to involve attorneys in what is commonly understood to be the business function of claims handling has