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Edited on Fri Apr-09-10 08:41 AM by TexasObserver
It works best if you get an attorney in your area to make a demand upon the hospital and insurance company to provide you with a defense, stating in the letter that you want representation for your interests separate from the hospital's interest. You want an attorney who is familiar with making a demand upon insurers and employers to provide a defense to an employee.
The purpose of the attorney that you personally hire is to make sure proper demands are made upon the insurance company and hospital to provide you with separate counsel. You have to be careful, though. You don't want to have them tell you that you aren't entitled to have a separate attorney paid for by the hospital, but that you do need to pay for separate counsel on your own.
Your goal is to require the hospital or its insurer to pay an attorney to represent you, as opposed to requiring you to accept the attorney designated for the hospital by the insurer. There may be a conflict of interest between what is good for the hospital and what is good for you.
The hospital and its insurer may refuse to do so. If you're not a named defendant in the lawsuit, you may not have a right to separate counsel provided by the insurance company from the hospital. If you ARE a named defendant in the lawsuit, you should have a right to separate counsel from the hospital, paid by the insurer. Insurers like to represent everyone with one attorney or law firm, and keep tight control of the defense. They prefer not to have to get separate counsel for employees of the defendant hospital. But if you are a named party to the lawsuit, you may have a right to your own attorney at the insurer's expense. Depends on the law in your jurisdiction.
Bottom line is you have to go see a knowledgeable lawyer in your area, at your own expense, as soon as possible. Tell them everything, and let them guide you through this. They'll probably make a written demand upon either the hospital or its insurer, if not both. The attorney will likely want to demand of the hospital and its insurer that they agree to provide you with separate counsel. If they refuse, you'll have to decide then what to do, but you will have made your written demand and left a paper trail of your efforts to get separate counsel.
Good Luck.
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