Are you looking for ways to lower your legal malpractice insurance premiums and help turn prospects into firm clients?  Look no further than your firm’s website and online presence.  

Insurance carriers now review your firm’s website in an effort to try and get a better picture of you. They are looking at the site content describing your areas of practice, the type and size of your clients, risk management procedures, articles in the firm newsletter, blog, your Google My Business profile and social media feeds. 

They are trying to determine if your law firm’s site conforms with the ABA and or state bar association rules and guidelines on advertising and e-platforms.  What the underwriter sees and interprets from your site will impact on how he or she views the exposure your firm creates and will influence the pricing up or down.

One of the content items that seems to regularly raise a red flag is the listing of the firm’s practice areas on the site.  Firms will often boast several areas of practice on the site, some of which they haven’t had a case in that area for years. 

I realize that it may seem like a good idea to list as many areas as possible to try and draw in clients. I have even spoken to firms that have told me that they want the web site to project the firm as having that “large firm” appeal or sophistication impact. 

From an underwriting and pricing standpoint, know that it can have a negative impact.  Especially if several of the areas of practice are considered higher risk areas such as: Oil and Gas, Securities, Intellectual Property (copyright patent trademark), Class Action and some Employment law.

Additionally, from a marketing standpoint, listing areas of practice that you do not typically deal in can have negative effects on your search engine optimization as well.  Google wants to know what your firm does well and they want to show your website to people searching for that skill. 

When you list many areas of practice and don’t have a concentration on a particular niche, your website is less likely to show up in the organic search results for what you do best! 

Please know, I am not trying to tell you how to advertise or practice.  That obviously is up to you. I am telling you that you should be as accurate as you can with the content on your website, Google My Business listing and social media profiles. 

Know that people other than prospects are looking at your website including insurance carriers and even your competition.  Keep your online presence updated, relevant and interactive.

It will give the insurance carriers an accurate picture of your firm, coordinate and confirm the information you list on the malpractice application and help drive the type of prospects to your website the firm wants to have as new clients.

What is a loss only deductible?

A loss only deductible, which is also commonly referred to as first dollar defense, is a deductible type that will only apply in the event that there is a settlement of a claim.

This means that if you are sued, and there are defense costs and other types of incidental costs, they’re not going to apply to your deductible. Your deductible is only going to apply in the event that there is some type of loss, i.e. settlement.

Is there a minimum limit that you need to carry on your legal malpractice policy as an attorney in Pennsylvania?

There is no limit that is required. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to carry legal malpractice insurance at all. However, keep in mind, if you do not carry at least $100,000 per claim, and $300,000 aggregate limit, you do have to disclose that fact to your clients that you do not carry the minimum of 100/300. On a side note, 100/300 limits is really not sufficient either. 

It is recommended that if you are going to carry legal malpractice insurance, you need at least half a million dollars per claim. Don’t get caught uninsured or underinsured.

Contact us at INtegrity First Corporation and we will be glad to answer any questions regarding legal malpractice insurance.

How often should you shop your legal malpractice insurance? It doesn’t hurt to actually look at other coverages every year, but it doesn’t pay to actually switch every year. That’s a dangerous practice to change your legal malpractice policy carrier year after year after year. You do not want to do that because of the type of policy it is. It is a claims made policy and switching year after year after year is not a good practice.

Also, when you’re shopping legal malpractice insurance, in order to get a solid quote from a competing carrier, you need to complete that carrier’s application. So you have to ask yourself, if you’re looking to save $100 but they’re asking you to complete one of their applications, how long is it going to take you to complete that application? An hour, two hours, three hours? What do you charge an hour? $100 an hour, $200 an hour, $300 an hour?

It actually could end up where it’s costing you money to switch carriers to save premium dollars. Kind of a crazy thing!

We at Integrity First Corporation are celebrating our 14th year in business this month and we want to thank all of our clients who made it possible because without you, we wouldn’t have made it one year, let alone 14 years. So thank you very much.

With any anniversary, I think you start to reflect as to what has changed over the course of the years (other than the color of my hair). I actually had a client give me a call this past week. He asked me if I thought the legal malpractice industry was a lot more competitive than what it has been in the past because he’s been receiving several emails, phone calls, and faxes every day from people that he’s never heard of offering legal malpractice insurance. I told him no, as far as I was concerned, it was not more competitive. It’s actually, from a coverage standpoint, probably less competitive than what it has been in the years past because there are less carriers that are actually offering the coverage.

As I started thinking more and more, I thought the reason why it seems that it’s more competitive is because there are more agencies and more agents that have gotten appointments or assignments to be able to offer quotes and coverage terms and we as an industry have actually made the legal malpractice product more of a commodity at times than that of a professional product. Agencies now send out what’s referred to as indication sheets and emails that say “ If you answer these three or four questions, we’ll throw a price at you.” and that’s what it’s become. So, it does seem that it’s gotten more competitive because of that practice. And, from my perspective, I think that’s sad. 

As an agency, we pride ourselves in trying to establish a long and solid relationship with our clients, getting to know them, and making sure that they’re getting the coverage that they need. We keep up to date and up to speed with the changes in the policy and the changes in the industry. We’re not just going to throw out four questions at you and say, “Hey, answer these, here’s your quote, don’t really care what you do, not really sure if the policy is going to cover everything that you need. But we’re gonna give you a price that’s less than what you’re paying.” We’re not going to do that.

We’re going to continue to do what we have been doing the last 14 years, for the next 14 years. So, again, I want to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to be of service to you, and we do look forward to another 14 years of being in business. Thank you very much.

Does your business include providing notary services for your clients?

If it does, you may have a potential coverage gap in your errors and omissions insurance policy.

In the times that we live in today with the COVID virus in the state mandated social distancing rules and regulations, the notary industry has come up with what they call RON services, remote online notary services. This basically allows the notary to perform notary reacts without the signer of the documents physically appearing in front of the notary. And while this may be a great thing to do now, during these times, it does pose insurance concerns and coverage issues.

Most errors and omissions policies which cover notary acts contain an exclusion or exclusionary wording that prohibits a notary act without the signer of the documents physically appearing in front of the notary.

Well, if you are notarizing a document online, obviously the signer of the document is not physically in front of you. What do you do?

I suggest that you call your insurance broker that sold you your errors and omissions policy and have him or her confirm with the insurance carrier, that the RON services will in fact be covered under your policy.

We at Integrity First Corporation have called all the carriers that we deal with for the errors and omissions coverage and they all have answered positively with regards to the remote online notary services. They have confirmed that the policies will respond to the RON services provided that those services have been done in accordance with the state approved guidelines and regulations.

So again, you need to do the same. Call your broker and confirm that coverage does exist for these types of services in your policy.

A question that frequently arises in the world of professional liability insurance is “what limits of liability should a lawyer or law firm carry?” 

To me, there is a simple answer to this question.

There are two parts to a set of professional liability insurance limits.  The first part is the “per claim” limit of liability.  This is the most that an insurance carrier will pay for both the cost to defend any one claim and any subsequent “loss” or “damages” sustained from said claim.  It stands to reason that the per claim limit of liability should be enough to cover both defense costs and a payout from a claim stemming from your highest valued case.

The second part of a set of professional liability insurance limits is the “aggregate” limit of liability.  This is the maximum amount of coverage for the entire policy year.  As the per claim limit should be selected to cover the worst of potential claims, your aggregate limit should be enough to cover your most expensive two or three claims.

If you find yourself thinking that your current coverage may not be suited to cover your biggest exposure, consult your broker on what the procedure and cost will be to obtain the limits you need.  You may be pleasantly surprised at how little the cost is to improve your coverage.

ACCEPTING GIFTS
Know the rules regarding gifts. Generally, a lawyer may receive modest, unsolicited gifts from clients(1). However, a lawyer should not solicit substantial gifts from a client, including testamentary gifts, unless the client is a close relative (2).

1 See MODEL RULES OF PROF’L CONDUCT R.1.8(c) (1983) (amended 2013). 2 Id.

Tip courtesy of  www.attorneyprotective.com