So if an agent gets sued for professional liability, it may well be from a plaintiff lawyer who doesn't have a whole lot of background in insurance. The laws vary a lot from state to state here. To give an example that I heard from a frightened surgeon, the legislature in one state passed a cap on medical malpractice awards. Insurers in the state, of course, then set their limits of liability at the cap amount. Since this example shows that the legal situation will vary from state to state, and from time to time, this discussion will be have to be general but, we hope, enlightening.
Most auto accidents lead to injuries that are ascertainable relatively quickly.
It is the unusual situation where injuries are not discovered until years afterwards. However, with professional liability cases, years may go by before alleged damage occurs. These statutes are in addition to statutes of limitation, so that in a state with an applicable statute of repose, it is possible that a lawyer could negligently draft a will, and the statute of repose might run out before the client died and any harm occurred. Application forms are different for professional liability than for many other types of insurance. It is not at all unusual to see 10-page applications in professional liability insurance be attached to the policy, and applicants rarely take them seriously enough.