Withholding Information from Employer at Direction of Workers' Compensation Carrier in Joint Representation
Adopted: April 21, 2015
Opinion rules that a lawyer who represents the employer and its workers' compensation carrier must share the case evaluation, litigation plan, and other information with both clients unless the clients give informed consent to withhold such information.
Inquiry:
As a defense attorney for workers' compensation cases, Attorney A is retained by an insurance company or a third-party administrator to represent both the carrier and the employer. In most workers' compensation insurance policies, the carrier has the right to direct the litigation and to resolve the claim without approval of the employer. Attorney A frequently receives general instruction from the carrier/third-party administrator not to provide the employer with a copy of any correspondence that includes an evaluation of the claim or a discussion of the litigation strategy. In addition, the following are common situations in which a defense lawyer is faced with the dilemma of what information relative to the evaluation of the claim or the litigation strategy may or should be provided to the employer:
1. The employer's representative and the plaintiff are the same person (i.e., the plaintiff owns the business).
2. The employer's representative and the plaintiff are related or close friends. Anything Attorney A sends to the representative will be forwarded to the plaintiff.
3. Two or more insurance carriers provided coverage for the employer over different time periods and the interests of the carriers are adverse. If Attorney A sends an evaluation to the employer, it can be anticipated that it will be forwarded to the other carrier(s).
What duty does the defense lawyer have, in these situations, to provide the employer with copies of correspondence to the carrier/third-party administrator that contain evaluations of the claim or discussions of the litigation plan?
Opinion:
Attorney A represents both the employer and the carrier and therefore has a duty to keep each client informed about the status of the matter. As noted in comment [31] to Rule 1.7, "...common representation will almost certainly be inadequate if one client asks the lawyer not to disclose to the other client information relevant to the common representation." The comment continues as follows:
This is so because the lawyer has an equal duty of loyalty to each client, and each client has the right to be informed of anything bearing on the representation that might affect that client's interests and the right to expect that the lawyer will use that information to that client's benefit. See Rule 1.4. The lawyer should, at the outset of the common representation and as part of the process of obtaining each client's informed consent, advise each client that information will be shared and that the lawyer will have to withdraw if one client decides that some matter material to the representation should be kept from the other. In limited circumstances, it may be appropriate for the lawyer to proceed with the representation when the clients have agreed, after being properly informed, that the lawyer will keep certain information confidential.
Loyalty to a client is impaired when a lawyer cannot keep the client reasonably informed or promptly comply with reasonable requests for information. Rule 1.4(a); RPC 153; 03 FEO 12. The employer and the carrier are both entitled to Attorney A's full, candid evaluation of all aspects of the claim. See 03 FEO12. If the carrier will not consent to Attorney A providing the same information to employer or the employer will not agree that certain information will be withheld, then Attorney A has a conflict and must withdraw from the representation of the employer and the carrier. If the carrier hires another lawyer to represent only the employer, Attorney A may—with the employer's consent—continue to represent the carrier and withhold evaluation and litigation strategy information from the employer.