Although I'm a loyal Denver Broncos fan, the early season play of the Dallas Cowboys inspired this month's Avoiding E&O topic. Dallas has been playing exceptionally well in the first games of the football season and the pundits have been trying to explain the team's success. The Cowboys aren't a bad team, but each time they seem ready to break into the elite ranks, they make a major mistake. In other words, they're pretty good, just not good enough.

Unfortunately, that's also a recipe for insurance professionals to get themselves into legal difficulties.

A case I'm involved with is a perfect example of litigation arising from an agent doing a “pretty good” job. The litigation is between an insured plaintiff and his insurance representative, the defendant. The relationship existed for more than two decades and it is undisputed that the producer was intimately aware of the nature of the insured's business operations. It is also undisputed that this particular client was one of the agent's largest and best clients. Recognizing this, the agent was regularly in touch with the insured and conducted an annual review of the client's insurance portfolio. The annual renewal meeting was not just a social visit—the purpose of the frequent contacts between the two parties was to make sure that the insurance program prepared by the agent met all the needs of his valuable client.