A brief comment in the August 2005 issue of Corporate Legal Times (pg. 18) noted that risk managers want to keep premiums low, so they might want to delay notifying an insurance carrier about a new case. Conflicts can arise with in-house counsel because “at the end of the day it’s the legal department’s responsibility to ensure the company has notified the appropriate carriers.”
I didn’t know that charge was so squarely laid on the law department, but I can imagine the tension between the roles of risk managers and lawyers. If there were any risks from late notification, the lawyers’ insistence on notification trumps the budget worries of risk managers.