How to Find a Life Insurance Attorney

How to Find a Life Insurance Attorney

When you have a life insurance dispute and you’re looking for a life insurance attorney to help you get your money from a claim or a policy, you should interview him or her as much as he or she will be interviewing you.

Your dispute may be about a denied life insurance claim, a policy that lapsed, or about a policy that was misrepresented to you when you bought it. No matter what the issue is, if you need to find a life insurance attorney you need to make a good decision about who to work with because once you start litigation you’ll be working with this person for a long time.

Our number one recommendation of priority for choosing a life insurance attorney is: Experience matters.

Life insurance is a specialty and not all attorneys have experience with this topic. To help you find a lawyer that will help you win your lawsuit and get your money, we’ve compiled a list of 10 important questions for you to ask before you commit to work with a life insurance attorney.

10 Questions to Ask a Life Insurance Attorney

1. How many life insurance cases have you filed?

You shouldn’t be looking for a rookie. You don’t want your attorney learning how to litigate a life insurance dispute at your expense. Experience is valuable. What’s the right number of cases your life insurance attorney should have under his or her belt? That’ll be your decision, but the more the better. Our recommendation is 50 at the very least.

• How many of those were for life insurance death claims?

If your dispute is about a death claim, especially a denied life insurance claim, then the more cases they’ve handled the better. Some law firms like to add-up the amount of claim money they’ve won as their ‘advertisements’ of success. But if your attorney has only won one claim, then the amount should be irrelevant. You’re looking for experience. A single case for $20 million isn’t as informative as 100 cases for $200,000. More cases won is better than one case for a lot of money.

• How many of those were for life insurance policy disputes?

If your dispute is over a policy you bought, then you should be asking the attorney how many disputes they’ve litigated. If all of their experience is in commercial property insurance disputes, move on to someone else. Commercial property insurance, auto insurance, disability insurance… aren’t life insurance. You need a seasoned expert who has experience specific to your problem – life insurance.

Also read: How to Appeal Denied Life Insurance Claims and Other Disputes, and Win.

2. How many life insurance cases have you appeared in Court for?

It’s one thing for an attorney to sue another party for life insurance money and settle the matter before it gets to Court. It’s something else to appear in court, in front of a judge and jury, and argue for the client. There’s a skill set for public speaking and effective presentations that not everyone has. If your life insurance lawyer has been in Court 20 times, and lost every time, wouldn’t you like to know?

The reality is most life insurance disputes will settle (come to an agreement out-of-court) before they get to court (more about this below). But, if your dispute has to go to Court you need to know if your life insurance lawyer has the money and the experience to go all the way – and win.

• How many of those Court appearances have you won?
• How many of the Court appearances have you lost?

3. If my case goes to Court, does your fee go up?

You don’t want to invest 18 to 24 months with an attorney and then learn that if your case goes to Court his/her fees go up 25%. This happens, especially with contingency-only lawyers. If your life insurance attorney works this way, will you be satisfied with getting 50% or less of the final judgement when you originally thought you’d get 65%? It’s better to know this up front because it could be very expensive to change attorneys right before your case goes to court.

4. How long will this entire process take?

The answer to this question is similar to the question about how long it takes to build a house. It’s always longer than expected and it always costs more than originally planned. Lawsuits move slowly. Two years to settle a legal dispute is quite common.

If you’re told that the matter can be settled in “weeks”, run out of this lawyers office. It’s not possible.

The legal system grants time for nearly every action in a lawsuit. When you serve notice of the lawsuit nothing can happen until the defendant is found and served. Then the defendant is allowed time to find an attorney to represent them. Then there are requests for documents that are allowed time. If any involved person has an emergency they can be granted extensions. There is time allowed for experts to evaluate the evidence and give their opinions. If the judge only works certain days of the week your case will adhere to his work schedule, not your schedule. On and on it can go. Extreme examples of 7 to 10 years to conclude a life insurance lawsuit, while rare, have happened.

Your life insurance lawyer, after hearing your side of the dispute, should be able to give you a range of time it will take for your case to resolve itself. If he/she seems overly optimistic (less than 18 months) be concerned.

5. What is a settlement?

This is a great question to ask your life insurance attorney because it opens-up the conversation about the most likely outcome for your dispute.

After your attorney has filed the lawsuit the opposing party will find their attorney. If their attorney can’t get the judge to dismiss the lawsuit they’ll eventually make offers to settle the dispute before you have to go to Court. The first offer is usually very low. The next and next will likely increase as the court date gets closer.

Accepting a settlement doesn’t change your fee agreement with your attorney. If you’ve agreed to a 33% attorney fee, that will come from the settlement amount you accept.

6. If I accept a settlement, how much will I keep?

The fee you accept is between you and your lawyer. A fee to the lawyer of 33.3% is standard. If you cannot afford to pay a retainer then you’ll likely have to give-up more of your share and the fee will be more than 33.3%. If you can afford to pay a retainer, then your attorney may accept less than 33.3% but will still want part of the ultimate settlement or Court judgement.

Obviously, you’ll have to pay any attorney to represent you for a lawsuit that you initiate, but you should know all of the fees up-front and get the best deal for yourself.

7. Will I have to give a deposition?

Many people dread public speaking. Depositions are typically done in an office room with your attorney, the opposing attorney(s), the court reporter and the opposing party. There are two sides of every deposition: the person being deposed and the opposing attorney doing the deposition. The opposing attorney will be prepared and will be trying to get you to say things to hurt your case.

In 7 Simple Tips for Taking Your First Deposition, By: Lucian B. Murley, as originally published as a Special to the Legal Intelligencer, PLW, August 2008. Attorney Murley describes taking an opponents’ deposition as “the heat of battle” with his “blood swimming with adrenaline”. Does that describe someone you want sitting across a large conference table from you trying to discredit your life insurance claim?

In most life insurance lawsuits both the plaintiff and the defendant will have to give a deposition. Plan on it.

8. Will the insurer have to pay damages on top of the claim amount?

This will certainly depend on the specific details of your life insurance dispute but, generally speaking, damages – an amount above and beyond the actual money in dispute – are not commonly awarded.

If you have a dispute over a $1 million death benefit then that amount, plus legal fees, is about the top end of what you should expect to get. Being able to punish an insurer for treating you unfairly, by getting awarded much more money than your claim is for, is unusual. Ask your life insurance attorney the likelihood of getting a judgement or settlement for all that you’re asking for.

9. How long have you been practicing law?

It’s surprising how many people meet with an attorney, answer all of his or her questions, but never ask any questions of the attorney. Will it matter to you if your attorney has been practicing for 3 weeks? What if they’ve been practicing 45 years? You should be looking for someone with experience. How much experience depends on your needs, but if you don’t ask you can’t make an informed decision.

10. Have you had complaints against you as a lawyer?

There’s nothing wrong with asking this question to an attorney you’re considering to represent you. Keep in mind, you’ll probably be working with him or her for the next 2 years. And, you’ll be sharing a lot of details about yourself with him or her. If the lawyer isn’t willing to give you an honest answer to this question, you should be concerned.

You can do your own independent investigation too. The state bar association for your state will have background information about the attorney you’re thinking of using for your life insurance dispute. You can call them or use the internet to do some due diligence. If your top candidate has had troubles reported to the bar association you should know. If you don’t want to ask him or her, ask the bar association.

Some More Thoughts to Find a Life Insurance Attorney

Of course lawsuits aren’t the only way to get your money from a life insurance claim or policy disagreement. (See: Life Insurance Lawyer Not Necessary to Settle Life Insurance Disputes). But, if litigation is the way you decide to handle the matter then use our list of questions and really get to know the life insurance lawyer you’re considering. Get the answers you deserve, up front, so you aren’t frustrated by the results of your lawsuit. Clearly, there aren’t any guarantees you’ll win your suit or get the opposing party to settle.

It’s true you can sue a life insurer or an agent and, depending on your case, get nothing. In fact, if you lose your life insurance lawsuit you can be responsible to pay for the opposing party’s legal costs.  So, don’t take it lightly or for granted that you have the right lawyer. Interview more than one person. Ask the important questions. And only go forward with the person who has the experience and credibility you feel best meets your specific needs.

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Mr. Burgess, the President of The Center for Life Insurance Disputes, has recovered over $60 million from denied life insurance claims for his clients. Mr. Burgess has consulted as an expert for more than 200 lawsuits regarding life insurance disputes.

Copywrite December 3, 2017.

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