FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 17, 2005

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
Laurie Peacock
312-580-6497
(cell) 312-608-3620

Trial Attorney Malpractice Insurer Insolvent

Chicago – Another liability insurer is leaving the Illinois market, but this one won’t affect access to medical care. In a twist to the ongoing professional litigation crisis, the Association of Trial Lawyers Assurance (ATLA Mutual), has admitted financial failure and has irrevocably consented to liquidation of its assets with a finding of insolvency.

ATLA Mutual was founded by the Association of Trial Attorneys of America and provided professional liability insurance to trial attorneys, many of whom make their living through medical litigation. Illinois trial lawyers have contended that liability insurers are reaping huge profits, yet their own insurer is the latest casualty in the very market they scrutinize. Perhaps they put into practice what they preach: in restraining necessary premium increases, they failed to recognize that, to survive, insurers must have sound financial stewardship.

Since 2001, ATLA Mutual had been in voluntary run-off and no longer wrote insurance coverage. In October 2004, ATLA Mutual’s Board of Directors signed a consent order with the Illinois Department of Insurance to liquidate its assets. This came after a finding by the Department’s Acting Director that “ATLA Mutual has insufficient available assets with which to meet its claims obligations as they become due, and as such, ATLA Mutual is insolvent.”

“These are the very people offering supposed ‘solutions’ to the physician liability crisis and they don’t even exhibit the know-how to keep their own profession’s insurance company afloat,” said ISMS president, Kenneth J. Printen, M.D. “If offering liability insurance is such a simple business, why then couldn’t they make their own company work? Look at the financial reporting documents and you’ll see that over the last five years, ATLA Mutual failed to generate any positive income above expenses.”

Dr. Printen predicted that, “The irony of ATLA’s failure to run an insurance company, and the comparisons to Illinois’ medical litigation crisis, will likely be lost on trial attorneys. To plaintiff lawyers, this is perhaps little more than a failed business venture. But with only a handful of medical liability insurers remaining in Illinois’ hostile litigation environment, the stakes are far higher for physicians and patients here – most notably, decreased patient access to medical care in communities where physicians are forced to leave because they can no longer afford or even find medical liability insurance.”

“Unfortunately ATLA Mutual’s failure will not result in an exodus of personal injury attorneys from Illinois,” Dr. Printen concluded.

www.isms.org

Dr. Printen is a board-certified general surgeon practicing in Evanston, IL.

The Illinois State Medical Society is a professional membership association representing 14,000
physicians practicing in all specialties statewide.