The Watkins Firm has extensive and proven legal skill across more than four decades serving as an experienced attorney for California insurance disputes and lawsuits.  If you have been named as a party in an insurance-related lawsuit or you have concerns or a dispute regarding coverage under your policy it is important to contact the Watkins Firm for a free consultation at 858-535-1511.  You have important legal rights in the state of California and insurance companies often initially decline claims which should be covered under their own policies.

Why do you need your own attorney in an insurance dispute?  It may surprise you to learn the attorneys for your insurance company owe their primary legal allegiance to the insurance policy, not you personally.  This creates a legal conflict of interest, because they are obligated to throw you under the proverbial bus if it will protect the interests of the insurance policy.

California is a leader in protecting our citizens from this conflict of interest.  California enacted laws that ensure that you, as an insurance policy holder who has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit based upon that insurance, have the legal right to your own independent or cumis counsel.  Your insurance policy is supposed to protect you in these cases, and therefore your insurance company must pay the bill for our representation.

In many cases it is a question of whether or not the policy itself covers the damages associated with a claim.

The next question is “what should you look for in an experienced attorney for California insurance disputes and lawsuits to ensure your interests are protected?”  The short answer is extensive litigation expertise and attorneys with experience in insurance bad faith.  Your own insurance company may be acting in a way that is not in your best interests.  Have you received a Reservation of Rights letter from your insurance company?  They may be establishing the basis for denying you coverage now or in the future.  You can draw upon our decades of experience and legal skill as well as our proven results in insurance bad faith issues.  We hold your insurance company to the highest legal standard, and protect your business or personal legal and financial position in all settlement negotiations, mediation, arbitration or trial.

Pro-Tip: “About 50 or 60 years ago, a Supreme Court justice of California named Learned Hand decided that insurance was a main fabric of our society that everybody needed to have access to, some kind of insurance so that people don’t just get completely devastated and from then forward a long litany of cases and cases and cases describing different types of rights and different types of things that were passed by the legislature, interpreted by the courts. And it just seems to be growing in weird and bizarre ways.  And so, as an older lawyer who’s seen it all, it’s crazy. Some of the things you get covered for are insane.

But it’s true. And so it’s a bizarre fabric that runs through all the kinds of cases we get as civil lawyers and knowing them and pairing them with your client’s case or avoiding them with the other side’s case. And also knowing that most lawyers don’t know about these things. It can be a crazy world when we do litigation for people. And I thought, how about a crazy segment on things you wouldn’t know about insurance? And some good old fashioned war stories of how things came about. And it’s a fine art between what really is possible and what they’ll tell you.

Knowing what is covered is not enough. Knowing how to handle the fact that it may be covered, knowing that it might be covered. That’s the biggest one – might be covered – is a whole new Right created by the legislature and all these court decisions might be covered is powerful stuff.

For example, you’ve got a case, you present it to your insurance company, and they think, ‘well, it’s probably not covered, but it might be.’ And when they say, when they have to say the words “might be” a whole new code section called Civil Code section 2860 comes to play. And you could end up with two different law firms representing you, paid for by the insurance company who doesn’t believe it’s covered. And they don’t know which causes of action are covered. So the courts say this insurance company’s got to defend you on all of these uncovered claims. Claims that are clearly uncovered, you get a free lawyer.” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

Has your valid claim been denied for coverage by your insurance company?  Have you been named as a defendant and served papers in an insurance-related lawsuit?  Are you looking for an experienced attorney for California insurance disputes and lawsuits who will aggressively protect and pursue your personal and financial interests?  We invite you to review our podcast Episode 35 – Crazy Things You Didn’t Know were Covered by Insurance as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.