Malpractice Insurance for Blogs: Follow Up

Kevin O’Keefe of Lexblog was kind enough to alert me that Chubb Insurance has issued a press release regarding the recent coverage of Chubb’s alleged refusal to provide malpractice insurance coverage for lawyers that blog. (See my recent post, “Does Your Malpractice Carrier Know About Your Blog?“) Kevin’s post discusses Chubb’s response.

Chubb advises that they will continue to provide malpractice coverage for law firms with blogs “within select parameters.” The press release makes a distinction between what it calls ‘informational’ blogs and ‘advisory’ blogs, stating that an informational blog provides information “similar to that found in an article or presented by an individual in a seminar,” rather than providing “advice to a specific individual on a unique matter.”

Chubb contrasts the informational blog with what it calls an ‘advisory’ blog, which could establish an attorney-client relationship and thus raise the risk for a malpractice suit.

As many of those who have commented on Kevin’s post over at LexBlog have pointed out, Chubb’s definition of an ‘advisory blog’ would seem to be a blog which offers advice to specific individuals, rather than providing general guidelines or information. Neither the commenters to Kevin’s post nor those with whom I have been discussing this issue outside of the blogosphere have ever seen a blog that could be considered an ‘advisory’ blog. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a lawyer that would be willing to take on that kind of risk for themselves (not to mention providing legal advice to unknown clients over the internet for free).

Notably, the Chubb press release fails to address the issue of disclaimers or whether the inclusion of a disclaimer on a blog would have an effect on Chubb’s determination of ‘insurability.’