In the last six months, two insurance agents are known to have been named as defendants in litigation over liquor-related motor vehicle accidents where the disputes were over the lack of proper coverage. It is now a fact of insurance business life that whenever a consumer is confronted with the prospect of having to assume a large loss, instead of being able to transfer it to an insurer, the insurance agent will be brought into the matter. Whatever the relationship may have been between purchasers of insurance and their agents, it usually sours whenever insureds learn they may have to pay claims out of their own pockets. Unfortunately, there is not much an insurance agent can do to avoid being named in a suit. What certainly would knock the wind out of any such argument, however, is when an agent can produce proof that a consumer was given the opportunity to purchase certain coverage, but it was turned down.

Insurance coverage