Insurance Limits Are Discoverable In Alabama
When we first started practicing law in the 90s we could not force the defendants to reveal the limits of their insurance policy in state court but this changed a number of years ago. This has helped in settlement negotiations as it helps when we have the same knowledge as the defendant as to this critical issue - how much insurance is out there.
If the defendant has a small amount of insurance, then we can tell our clients this and decide if settling is the right option even if the amount is lower than any of us would like.
If the defendant has a high amount of insurance (for example in one trucking case the primary insurance was 1 million and the excess was 25 million) then everyone understands that a large verdict could be paid from the policy.
It is odd but some defendants in state court still fight us on producing this information despite the rules expressly requiring the defendants to produce this. In federal court in one of our consumer cases the defendant refused to produce the policy because the defendant decided not to file a claim with the insurance company. The federal judge quickly ordered it to be produced as the federal rule is clear that insurance is discoverable.
Remember if you are in a wreck normally the insurance company will NOT tell you what the insurance limits are of the person who caused the wreck. But if you file suit you can discover this information and it is very helpful to know.
We'll write more about the discovery process in the near future.
Thanks to the excellent blog "Day on Torts" by John. A. Day for reminding us to discuss this concept - Tennessee just ruled that insurance limits in Tennessee are not discoverable.
