Your Lawyer May Be Bare

Your lawyer probably has insurance for her car - the law requires it. But unfortunately the law does not require an attorney to have insurance to protect her clients against her screw ups. So if a lawyer is negligent in driving his car there has to be insurance. If a lawyer is negligent in representing a client - no insurance required. This is an article I wrote some years ago suggesting that lawyers should be required by law to have insurance. Insurance to protect clients. The lawyers dont like that, or at least most of the organized bar does not. So a compromise has been suggested which I support as a great first step. Lawyers will be obligated to disclose to the government what insurance they have and that information will be posted on the internet. An interesting first step, but in my view not enough. Why not require insurance? Why not require each lawyer to disclose in writing to his or her clients what insurance they do have or that they do not have any insurance at all? More about this in another post to come.