Professional Liability Insurance Claims: Pre-litigation

Summary

This practice note will address many of the areas of inquiry and investigation that you need to conduct in preparation for a claim and potential litigation concerning it based on professional liability. It applies both to claimant and defense attorneys and counsel representing insurance intermediaries. Naturally, the orientations of the inquiries and the information sought will differ. The practice note will use the terms professional liability and professional liability insurance as generic terminology and interchangeably. The terms malpractice and malpractice insurance are used to describe the tort and the applicable insurance, respectively. Malpractice and errors & omissions insurance are similar, but the former is more frequently reserved for medical and legal professionals, whereas the latter tends to be more generic. Thus, professional liability is used here.