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Where Will Your Legal Education Take You?

Insurance Lawyer

Insurance Lawyer Lego Illustration

Graphic by Alondra Pulido

Insurance law presides over the contract between the insured and the insurer. Its practice can be divided into three areas of focus: insurance coverage, litigation and defense, and compliance. Insurance coverage cases compromise those involving the content of insurance policies, and whether the insurer is responsible for covering a given loss. Insurance litigation and defense cover a wide range of areas, including bad faith, insurance fraud, and catastrophic loss (for example, thousands of claims were filed both individually and as class action suits in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina). Finally, insurance compliance involves the regulation of insurance and the penalties for non-compliance.

One component of insurance law that attorneys in the field may deal with, and that is unique to the United States, is that of bad faith. Under U.S. law, the insured may sue their insurer on a tort claim for that insurer’s bad acts. Such acts are generally those where the insurer refuses to pay a claim without investigating it or without a reasonable basis. In the United States, such acts breach the “implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing” that exists in every insurance contract, thereby allowing a tort claim to be filed in addition to the breach of contract claim.

Though not necessarily common, insurance lawyers may potentially work on unconventional, niche cases considering the wide range of activities that different insurance policies cover. For example, one company in London sold over 4,000 alien abduction insurance policies in the 1990s. Also in England, a hotel’s insurance policy pays one million GBP to any member of their staff or visitor if they are killed or permanently disabled by ghosts while at the hotel.

Insurance paperwork with a pencil and a small roll of money on top of the paperwork.

Photo by Marco Verch on Flickr

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