#2018-19/02 Insurance Opinion

ABSTRACT

The Ethics Committee previously issued two opinions addressing the relationship between an insurance company and the lawyer hired by the company to represent its insured. These opinions, which turned on a preliminary question of insurance law that remains unsettled in New Hampshire, are inconsistent with one another. Because it is not within the Committee’s purview to decide this question of insurance law, after review, the Committee withdraws one of the opinions and modifies the reasoning of the other. Lawyers are further advised that until this question is resolved by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, they should be clear whom they represent in their engagement letters and in communications with the insurance company.

Ethics Committee Opinion #2018-19/02 by the NHBA Ethics Committee. This opinion was submitted for publication to the NHBA Board of Governors at its May 6, 2019 meeting.

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A Note About Ethics Materials from the NH Bar Association Ethics Committee

Care should be exercised in determining which version of a given Rule applies as of a given date, and the extent to which the interpretation of a given opinion or article will apply to such version. Many interpretations of New Hampshire ethics law (including many ethics opinions, practical ethics articles, and ethics corner articles issued by the NHBA Ethics Committee) have been published under the prior version of the Rules of Professional Conduct or predecessor rules. Read more.

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