I have seen several threads, wondering about wether or not homeowners insurance will cover your liability and legal defense in the off chance that you have to defend yourself with deadly force.


To set this matter straight the simple answer is no, about 95% of all insurance companies exclude intentional acts from your homeowners liability coverage.  Intentional acts, being I was afraid for my life and I acted accordingly.  (which is what you should say to the police and DA along with I request legal council) the downside to this is that it doesn't protect you from civil tort  (the thugs family will sue the hell out of you).  


At this point if you are interested you are asking yourself, so what the hell can I do to defend myself from a lawsuit.  I have come up with two options for you,

1)  NRA endorsed self defense insurance policy here  in my opinion it seems like a good choice and reasonably priced, however $250,000 and $50,000 is not nearly enough coverage in my opinion if you are going to be sued by the bottom of the barrel of society.  


2) I have been doing some additional research into this lately.  I am sure some of you have heard of this before, but I have wondered as to wether or not this would actually work.  There is a policy called an umbrella policy it attaches to your homeowners and car insurance policies.  It provides $1,000,000 worth of additional coverage on top of your other insurance policies.  Now this $1,000,000 is provide on top of defense costs (i.e. your insurance company comes in with their way over priced hot shot attorneys and cleans house, because it is their ass on the line not yours).  In my opinion an umbrella policy is usually less expensive than option 1 and a little more viable.



Now if you have any questions please feel free to post them in this thread or IM me.  (I am a liscensed insurance agent in about 27 states).  I will be happy to answer your questions if I can, but I am not offering to sell you insurance.  Selling to people you know from the web is not a good idea.  


ETA if you don't like my spelling or grammer FOAD

Quoted: {snip}(i.e. your insurance company comes in with their way over priced hot shot attorneys and cleans house, because it is their ass on the line not yours).  {snip}

You have GOT to be kidding.  I am an attorney who manages litigation for a LARGE insurance company and we have panel counsel for defense who are working for usually 1/4 of what the going rate is for the man off the street.  FOr instance our "go to" firm in Hollywood FL is handling claims at about $115 an hour.  i got a bill today from private counsel retained by the insured (they can pick their own and stick us with the bill if we reserve rights) and that firm (a national firm with heavy hitters in south FL) is working at $525 an hour.  I dare say that our highest price firm in the states that I handle (mainly TX (including the hell holes in Beaumont and Hidalgo) FL and LA) work for $150 an hour or less and only a few firms get $200/hr.  They work at this discount because we provide a steady stream of cases and we PAY OUR BILLS.

I'm not even goint to touch the statement you made about the attorney working harder if it is the policy money vs. the insured's money on the line.  It is just ridiculous, but I've found you just can't shake people that believe this way, especially insurance agents.

You might also check the language of the umbrella because most of them have langauage that follows the form of the working layer insurance.  What that means is that the Umbrella usually has substantially the same exclusions and such as the primary policy.

Quoted: To set this matter straight the simple answer is no, about 95% of all insurance companies exclude intentional acts from your homeowners liability coverage.  Intentional acts, being I was afraid for my life and I acted accordingly.  (which is what you should say to the police and DA along with I request legal council) the downside to this is that it doesn't protect you from civil tort  (the thugs family will sue the hell out of you).

If someone breaks into your house and you shoot them, there are two theories under which a plaintiff could pursue the case. One is that you committed an intentional act in harming them. The other is that you negligently harmed them (mishandling the gun, failing to identify the target, etc.)

Shooting someone could be either one, or both, and the plaintiff's attorney should allege both if he is worth the paper his degree is printed on.  If he alleges negligence, then the insurance company would be bound to defend. If he doesn't allege negligence then he has cut himself out of the surest chance for a settlement.

If you hunted someone down and shot them, that is a much clearer case for an intentional act. But I doubt that even the NRA insurance would cover you for something like that.