Q: My husband was injured 9 years ago. His case was finally won in September of 2002 after years and years of appeals. We are now told today that the insurance company has gone bankrupt and that the money is now backed by the State of illinois.
We have some serious doubts about the way our lawyer has handled the case. We would like another lawyer to review the records to make sure everything is on the up and up.
The insurance company had offered settlements, was it not up to our lawyer to tell us the insurance company was going bankrupt?
So much of this makes no sense. This is a well-known group of attorneys in Chicago and we would like some advice.
--Dawn, Frankfort IL
Attorney Cliff Horwitz:
What a disaster! You go through litigation for years and then the carrier goes bankrupt? How terribly unfortunate and cruel.
I can tell you that an attorney has really no reasonable way of knowing that an insurance company is going to go bankrupt. No attorney studies the finances of insurance companies in order to predict bankruptcy. Professional brokers who deal in stocks in the stock market cannot predict a bankruptcy. No court would hold that an attorney is under an obligation to evaluate the financial underpinnings of an insurance company (unless for some reason it was obvious to the lawyer) in order to predict a bankruptcy.
I am sorry. I wish I could help.