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Malpractice 'Notice' and 'Claims' Issues In Suits Against Entertainment Attorneys
The increase in recent years in malpractice claims against lawyers has impacted entertainment attorneys, too. If a malpractice complaint is filed, will the attorney's liability policy cover the suit? Two primary concerns here are whether the attorney has timely notified his or her insurer of a malpractice claim and how to determine the number of malpractice 'claims' for purposes of the insurer's malpractice-coverage obligations.
A recent ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin addressed both issues, as well as which state's law should apply in interpreting malpractice policies. McCraw v. Mensch, 06-C-86-S. In the case, Ilinois-based music attorney Linda Mensch had served as counsel for the Wisconsin-based rock group the BoDeans for 12 years, beginning in 1985. She handled the legal work for the formation of the BoDeans operating entity, Keshaw Inc., as well as the group's publishing company, Lla-Mann Music Partnership. Mensch also negotiated a 1996 employment agreement between the BoDeans and their long-time manager Mark McCraw. The band-manager relationship later soured. In the summer of 2004, Mensch was deposed in litigation between the BoDeans and McCraw in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. (The band-manager litigation was settled after the circuit court judge ordered a retrial, following a 2005 trial.) On Dec. 3, 2004, the BoDeans' counsel wrote Mensch that the band planned to file a malpractice complaint against her. '[B]ased on your own testimony, I sincerely doubt that you are surprised to receive this letter,' the BoDeans' lawyer stated in the letter. Mensch sent a copy of the letter to her malpractice insurer, Illinois State Bar Association Mutual Insurance Co. (ISBA), which received it on Dec. 9.
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