My boss realized that giving webinars helps us avoid the Yoho criteria for having a substantial connection to an insurance company. The plaintiff would like to get the insurance company’s name in front of the jury because juries do not like insurance companies or hesitate to make them pay. The defendant does not want the insurance company named to avoid prejudice. Yoho and Todd identified criteria that would tip the balance and have the insurance company named because the expert has too close of a relationship.
We have seen a contractor who regularly testified for Auto Owners be forced to name Auto Owners and describe his relationship with them. Auto Owners lost the case and never hired the guy again, he lost his contracting business and went to work for a supply company. If one of us gets a similar ruling they probably will not get insurance work in the future.
One of the criteria we could not get around was providing lectures to an insurance company. A lunch and learn like one of our newer experts did with Selective can meet the criteria of Yoho to tip the balance to naming the insurance company. I realized the webinars we are doing avoid that problem because we present to an audience that is a mix of adjusters, plaintiff attorneys, and defense attorneys.
So, I guess we focus on webinars to the mass public and not inhouse talks or webinars.
