What Happens After Practice
An Extended Reporting Endorsement (ERE) – also known as tail coverage – is needed because of the claims-made nature of lawyers professional liability insurance. A claims-made policy provides coverage for alleged actions that occurred during the time the policy was in effect. In other words, the coverage provided in a claims-made policy ends when the coverage terminates.
Professional liability policies afford coverage for one year at a time, so in order for an attorney to have coverage in force at all times, a policy must be obtained every year. Continuity of coverage is paramount in claims-made coverage. That said, an attorney can only purchase professional liability insurance while in active practice. This poses a problem for an attorney who is going to go into retirement, become a judge, change firms or enter a non-legal profession. That’s where ERE/tail coverage comes in.
The purchase of an ERE is not a separate policy. Instead, the endorsement extends the terms and conditions of the prior existing policy and allows an additional period of time in which a claim may be reported to the insurance carrier. The purchased endorsement allows the attorney to report claims to the insurer after the policy has expired or been cancelled.
Read below for common questions we receive about ERE/tail coverage.