How important is it that the lawyer I'm thinking about hiring has insurance?
Insurance for lawyers in California is call "Error and Omissions Insurance" and covers the attorney in case he or she gets sued for malpractice by a client.
Every attorney should have insurance and the attorney you hire should have it too. If your case is a personal injury case, for example, and the attorney fails to file some critical piece of paperwork by a deadline, then your case may be lost through no fault of your own. This would be the case even if you were seriously hurt. In a scenario like this, you'd be forced to get your personal injury recovery from the lawyer who ruined your case.
The reason this is not ideal is because it ties you up into even more litigation and even worse, the amount you can recover from the attorney, if uninsured, may be limited to his or her assets, which might not be very much.
Before you hire an attorney, ask him or her if they have insurance. If they don't ask why not, and then call us to see if we can help you find a qualified lawyer with insurance. Having errors and omissions insurance is a requirement for membership in our Lawyer Referral Service so we can promise that we'll have you protected to that extent.
Call us at 951.682.1015
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