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Posted on: December 31, 2020 by Huntersure
The disruption caused by the COVID-19 outbreak is having a widespread ripple effect on the entire world. From how we live to how we work to order food, the coronavirus’s change on virtually everything is unprecedented. One industry that is waiting to see how it will look long-term is the legal field. Many areas of law will see a significant rise in divorce, workers’ compensation, and negligence. But beyond the cases that lawyers will represent, there are other legal implications that COVID-19 will have on the world.
The workplace has changed, so employment law will grow with it, including more cases such as workplace disputes over working from home capabilities, safe working environments back on site, and employer’s duty of care for potential future breakouts of the pandemic. Cases pointed at lawyers might also see a rise due to negligence claims, in which lawyer professional liability will become more of a necessity than before.
There is also expected to be new definitions of flexible working and how employers judge acceptable practice. Other areas of the legal field that may see change are legal tech with a further need for digital solutions, litigation, companies in disputes with clients over delays and cancellations, and mental health law.
As lawyers acclimate to their kitchen or home office’s new workspace, they must also consider what kind of work culture they want to build on moving forward. Some firms have chosen to replicate the law office’s relics online by implanting a strict dress code, scheduling, and daily check-ins for employees.
Other firms might choose to allow lawyers to dress casually, at least when not part of video conferencing, or work on their schedule as long as they accomplish vital targets.
Statistically speaking, divorce filings jump by 33 percent in January. But with divorce-related keyword searches rising by 11 percent this year and nearly twice as many people searching “file for divorce,” family
lawyers will have a busy 2021 and beyond.
Proceedings may take longer while social distancing measures remain in place, probably through the spring, but these cases are coming. Family lawyers will also have to consider the stresses most people have experienced during the pandemic and how that will affect settlement amounts and specifics.
The rapid spread of COVID-19 came during several states’ efforts to change the legal field regulation with the primary goal of bolstering access to legal help. Supreme courts throughout the country sent out task forces to examine how to make it more accessible for technology-driven legal service providers to operate and whether to cut out prohibitions regarding nonlawyers ownership of law firms.
Regulatory reform supporters feel the coronavirus and its aftermath will create the additional impetus for such efforts because the many legal issues related to COVID-19 will further aggravate the justice gap. The demand for regular service will rise, as seen above with divorce lawyers, and at the same time, the ability of lawyers to sustain their services under the current models will need to change.
Huntersure LLC is a full-service Managing General Agency that has provided insurance program administration for professional liability products to our partners across the United States since 2007. We specialize in providing insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. Our program features can cover small firms (grossing $2.5 million annually) to large corporations (grossing $25 million annually or more). We make doing business with us easy with our breadth and depth of knowledge of E&O insurance, our proprietary underwriting system that allows for responsive quoting, binding and policy issuance and tailored products to meet the needs of your insureds. Give us a call at (855) 585-6255 to learn more.
Posted in: Lawyer's professional liability insurance