The Superior Court of New Jersey has refused to place the responsibility to comply with a court rule requiring a minimum amount of professional liability coverage for attorneys practicing as an LLC with an insurer. The court, instead, ruled that it was the responsibility of the insured to ensure that it had enough coverage to be in compliance with the court rule. The case is Cadre v. ProAssurance Cas. Co. ., No. A-4969-18, 2021 N.J. Super. LEXIS 77 (Super. Ct. App. Div. June 9, 2021.

Jill Cadre is a New Jersey attorney who conducts her practice as a limited liability company, The Cadre Law Firm, LLC. New Jersey Rule 1:21-1B, governs the practice of law as an LLC and among other things, mandates that attorneys who practice law must have professional liability insurance which provides coverage to the LLC for damages "arising out of the performance of professional services by attorneys employed by the [LLC] in their capacities as attorneys."

Cadre purchased a professional liability insurance policy, called LawyerCare, from ProAssurance Casualty Company. In preparation for a compliance audit by the Office of Attorney Ethics (OAE) in 2015, Cadre discovered that one of her paralegals had misappropriated $80,000 of client's funds held in the LLC's trust account in connection with real estate closings. Cadre notified ProAssurance of a potential claim under the policy. ProAssurance denied coverage, relying on the policy's definition of covered damages which did not include "misappropriated client funds." Cadre then filed a declaratory judgment action, and subsequent amended complaint, and moved for a summary judgment, seeking coverage for claims under the policy resulting from the misappropriated funds.