The Expert Podcast

…If you're a business owner or an insurance company, this is a very important factor to keep in mind for being a liable for attorney's fees. If you have a case where there's damages or liability and you Sue another party. If you have insurance that would cover that potential loss. That insurance will kick in for attorney's fees However, if the other party makes an offer to you to settle. And you don't accept that offer. Any attorney's fees that are needed. Over and above and beyond that settlement amount. May be something that has to be adjudicated by the court. If the insured prevails at trial. The insurance company can get attorney's fees but only after they prove first of all that they did not accept that settlement and the attorney's fees have to be reasonable They can't just be some arbitrary made up number. This kicks in a lot with lawsuits So let's say you Sue somebody. Four. You know $50,000. And they make offer to you of 30,000 and you. Deny the offer and you go to trial and you spend attorney's fees. And the other side spends attorney's fees and maybe there's a judgment issued for $40,000. Well, the other side and also your insurance company can say look, if you accepted that $30,000, you wouldn't have had all these attorney's fees So the other side can request those attorney's fees, your insurance company if they provided you with defense coverage. Can also make a claim for you for those attorney's fees and vice versa the insurance company might be required to pay him to the other side. So be aware of that you want to get good legal advice from an attorney You know we're not attorneys. about this type of scenario in liability but also make sure that your insurance coverage in your policy for your commercial policy. Has the right language. For defense coverage and what the liability limits are You want to make sure that you have…no limitation That's going to put you out of business If you have to pay a certain amount that you can't afford, that might be something you want to have extra coverage for And if you're entering into settlement negotiations, you want to make sure that. you know what you're rejecting is not just that initial offering. You may be also waiving some rights to attorney's fees that you have to pay later.