Texas High Court Won’t Require Attorney Liability Insurance Disclosure

The Supreme Court of Texas has decided against requiring attorneys in the state to disclose whether they have professional liability insurance. “As with any complex issue, good arguments were presented in favor of and against mandatory liability insurance public disclosure,” Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson wrote in a letter to State Bar President Roland Johnson. “Of course, we should be concerned if clients are unable to recoup sums occasioned by lawyer malpractice, or if the public would view the non-existence of such insurance a critical factor in the decision to retain a lawyer. But … there is little evidence of either circumstance.”

Justice Phil Johnson, the Court’s liaison to the State Bar, noted that this decision does not affect a potential client’s ability to ask for such information from an attorney.

“Clients and potential clients have always been entitled to request information on whether an attorney has professional-liability insurance,” Johnson said. “The Court’s decision to not mandate public disclosure does not impact voluntary disclosure of such information.”

The Bar appointed a task force to consider mandatory insurance disclosure in 2007 after the Court asked it to consider the issue. The task force narrowly recommended against adoption of a disclosure rule, and the Bar’s board of directors subsequently agreed with that recommendation.