Insurance protection against litigation

In Fulbright & Jaworski’s Fourth Annual Litigation Trends Survey, at 50, a chart portrays data from 303 UK and US companies. The chart shows what percentages of those companies carry nine kinds of insurance against litigation costs. In decreasing order, the insurance coverage included general liability (56% had such a policy), D&O (37%), “other” (35%), “self-insured” (18%), EPL (10%), “E&O” (9%), umbrella (2%), excess (1%) and “GC” (0%). E&O stands for Errors and Omissions.

This is quite a list of coverage types, but it is not exhaustive. Insurance against legal risk is available in a number of practice areas (See my posts of July 25, 2005 and July 20, 2005 for patent litigation; March 23, 2006 #5 for employment practices litigation [EPL]; and Nov. 16, 2005 #3 for IP insurance in Denmark.), This blog has commented more generally on insurance against litigation expenses (See my post of July 30, 2005 on external legal fees and insurance; April 23, 2006 about litigation insurance after a lawsuit is filed; Nov. 16, 2005 #3 for its availability in Europe.)