When the Insurer Provides a Defense in Name Only – Current Issues Over Insurer Tactics to Limit Their Defense Obligation

Topics include:

• Explanation of an insurer’s defense obligation and a policyholder’s right to independent counsel in the event of a conflict between insurer and policyholder
• Insurer refusal to pay the policyholder’s independent defense counsel more than the “panel counsel” rates paid by the insurer and the courts’ response to those refusals
• Insurer insistence that policyholders or their defense counsel accept the insurer’s litigation management guidelines, policyholder responses and court treatment of such
• Policyholder responses to insurer audits of the bills of policyholder’s independent counsel
• Recoupment of defense costs by insurers
• Policyholder responses to insurers’ recoupment efforts and lessons learned from court decisions on insurer recoupment