The direction of the insured's defense and the problem of the interests in conflict.

Abstract

Liability insurance contract's legal design grants the direction of the defense of the liability claim and lawsuit to the insurer. Sometimes, the interests of insurer and insured are opposed, which is manifested in the differences between them related to decisions about the defense of the liability claim or trial. The thesis that this work supports is that liability insurance's legal regulation restricts the option to give the defense of the trial's direction to the insurer only to cases of conflict of interests in a strict sense. The former does not mean that the other conflicts of interests do not produce any legal effects, but that these legal effects are others: those that arise from the agent's tort liability in a collective agency.