Civil liability Coverage for a Self-Defense Shooting – Does it really matter if your new home is Prison?

A recent article – “COVERAGE FOR A SELF-DEFENSE SHOOTING: Do I Need it and What Am I Getting?” compared current companies offering self-defense coverage.  The focus of the article centered on civil lawsuits, which is the wrong issue to focus on when a person is involved in a self-defense incident.

Rather than debate civil liability, let’s discuss the cost of criminal defense in a self-defense incident.  Let’s be clear, an American’s first concern after a self-defense incident is and always should be how you will face a criminal prosecution.  No one should be worried about a civil lawsuit while they are sitting in jail charged with murder.  Ensuring you have sufficient resources to keep you out of prison is critical.  Civil judgments against an individual who was involved in a self defense shooting is an incredibly rare occurrence that allows some companies to try and justify an exorbitant membership fee. CCW Safe focuses on the most common and likely shooting scenarios that allows resources to be pushed to preserve your freedom. It is very scary thinking about someone taking all your assets after you defended yourself. It may motivate you to overpay a membership fee. However, that is an astronomically rare incident. Criminal charges are to be feared. CCW Safe pays your lawyers in either scenario, so you will have peace of mind. The reality of successful civil lawsuits after a justified use of force is an extremely rare event and is used as a scare tactic in our industry.  If you lose the criminal case, without a doubt your chances of being sued are greatly increased.

So rather than debate hypotheticals, let’s talk about facts. Let’s review CCW Safe recently managed an incident where one of their members was charged with 1st Degree Murder and detail what you really need to look for in Self-Defense Coverage.

On a Sunday morning, at approximately 4am, a CCW Safe member called the Emergency Hotline to report that he had been in a shooting and was being charged with 1st Degree Murder. The member was immediately connected with an attorney who provided privileged counsel.  This is point number one:

The Best Self-Defense Coverage:

1. An emergency hotline that connects you to an expert, immediately.

Make sure your current plan has an Emergency hotline and not just a person with a cell phone is one of the first questions you should ask.  It cannot be a call center who answers. The person on the other end of the line, in which you are sharing the details of the encounter needs to be an actual attorney. Your conversation needs to be confidential and privileged.  At this point in the process, your time is too precious to waste on waiting to be transferred to the right person.

2. Connects you with a local, experienced and successful self-defense lawyer, immediately.

CCW Safe’s Emergency Protocols were immediately activated.  Don West, National Trial Counsel for CCW Safe, researched, vetted and professionally selected a local attorney experienced in Use of Force and Capital Murder cases with a proven track record of success.  This local attorney immediately contacted the member currently being held in County Jail.  Making sure you get the right attorney with the right experience (not just a Second Amendment advocate) is key to your defense.

3. Covers your entire self-defense case

CCW Safe retained the local attorneys for $100,000 to handle the 1st Degree Murder case.  This was only the retainer.  You should ask other companies what is their current policy limit on the criminal defense?  Too many plans don’t provide enough basic coverage to even retain an attorney on a major criminal charge.  It isn’t hard to exceed $200,000 on a criminal defense and can easily exceed $400,000.  Your first priority is to stay out of prison, you need to make sure you have the resources. Making sure your plan has the enough coverage could mean the difference between a guilty and a not guilty verdict.

The trial for CCW Safe’s member will be in 2017 and the overall expense will easily exceed $300,000 and that’s just for the criminal defense.  This is for a lethal use of force case with no publicity.  CCW Safe’s member has not paid a dime beyond his annual membership fee.  Having a 1st Degree Murder charge hanging over your head is stress enough, worrying about the cost of your defense shouldn’t be an additional burden.  The harsh reality is there will always be a criminal investigation after a lethal use of force.  Making sure you will be protected is why you bought self-defense coverage in the first place.

In a recent USCCA video, USCCA’s own attorney stated he “would not touch a homicide for under $50,000” and “to put on a decent murder case, you’re into six figures pretty easily.” He went on to say “a decent criminal defense attorney is always going to build the case with the trial in mind and with the civil suit that may result later in mind. You not only want to win so strongly in criminal court that there’s no question of the person’s innocence, you want to win so strongly that no plaintiff lawyer will feel confident in the results to take that case against your client  We agree that winning the criminal case is the best defense against a civil trial.  That being said, being found guilty in the criminal case can be a real issue if the company immediately stops providing coverage.  Many insurance products have built their models to deny a claim or coverage.   That means no civil lawsuit protection when you actually need it the most.   Even if you are found not guilty, many companies only provide a total limit of $250,000 to cover civil lawsuit legal fees and settlements.  Additionally, it would not be hard to go through that entire amount in a major civil case and have nothing left near the end.

CCW Safe places no limit on your criminal or civil legal defense and continues coverage even if you are found guilty.  Before you buy from companies who boast one million dollars of civil liability coverage, you need to ask:

“How many times have you paid out on a large civil claim above 250,000 dollars?”  and “How many civil liability claims have you denied?”

In the end, I believe CCW Safe offers the most coverage and at the lowest price in the entire industry.  If settlement coverage is something you must have, I strongly suggest combining CCW Safe with Second Call Defense.  It truly is the ultimate one-two punch in self-defense coverage.  I believe Second Call Defense is the next best thing in the industry.  They don’t use scare tactics, pressure sales or disparaging remarks against law enforcement.  They are affiliated with the NRA and bring a ton of additional resources to the table that compliments what CCW Safe already provides.

For most, CCW Self-Defense Coverage will give you the coverage you need to stay out of prison when you protect yourself. I am a self-defense advocate and I wouldn’t have come to work for CCW if I didn’t believe that.