{"id":5893,"date":"2026-10-15T08:20:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.coveryou.in\/blog\/?p=5893"},"modified":"2026-10-15T08:20:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T13:50:21","slug":"who-picks-the-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coveryou.in\/blog\/who-picks-the-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Picks the Lawyer?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You already know who you want.<\/p>\n

A senior advocate in your city who has defended two colleagues and understands the clinical material without needing it explained twice.<\/p>\n

You call the insurer to tell them, and the conversation goes somewhere you did not expect.<\/p>\n

Who appoints the lawyer in an indemnity claim<\/strong>\u00a0is not a matter of preference. It is written into the conditions, and most doctors read it for the first time at the worst possible moment.<\/p>\n

The Clause That Decides It<\/strong><\/p>\n

Indian professional indemnity wordings give the insurer the right to take over and conduct the defence in your name, with full discretion over the proceedings and any settlement.<\/p>\n

Two words in that sentence do a lot of work. Right<\/em>, not duty \u2014 most Indian wordings say the insurer has the right but in no case the obligation to run the defence. And full discretion<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 over strategy, over counsel, and over whether to settle.<\/p>\n

One product examined goes the other way and imposes a duty to defend. That is the exception, not the rule, which is why a blanket assurance that your insurer will defend you is not something to rely on.<\/p>\n

So Can You Choose Your Own Advocate?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not as a right. None of the Indian doctors\u2019 wordings examined contains a choice-of-counsel clause, a panel-advocate provision, or any mechanism for agreeing counsel between you and the insurer.<\/p>\n

And the consent condition closes the gap from the other side: you generally cannot incur defence costs without the insurer\u2019s prior written consent, and in at least one wording that consent is a condition precedent to cover.<\/p>\n

Put those two together and the practical answer to who appoints the lawyer in an indemnity claim<\/strong>\u00a0is the insurer \u2014 either directly, by taking over the defence, or indirectly, by controlling which costs are recoverable.<\/p>\n

Where You Still Have Room<\/strong><\/p>\n

So who appoints the lawyer in an indemnity claim<\/strong>\u00a0is settled in principle \u2014 but in practice the answer is negotiated more often than doctors realise.<\/p>\n

This is not the same as having no say, and the doctors who do best here use the room that exists.<\/p>\n