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V.What does the Open Meeting Lav Defense Cost Reinhxirsement <br />Agreement cover? <br />Under the new coverage, LMCIT will reimburse a city <br />official for 80% of the defense cost incurred by the city <br />official in defending an Open Meeting Law lawsuit. The Open <br />Meeting Law Defense Costs Reimbursement Agreement is limited to <br />$20,000. This is the most LMCIT will reimburse any one city <br />official for defense costs for Open Meeting Law lawsuits <br />commenced during the term of the insurance coverage agreement, <br />regardless of the number of lawsuits or the number of actual <br />alleged violations. <br />VI.What doesn't it cover? <br />There are two major kinds of costs for which this coverage would <br />not reimburse the official: <br />1.Any fine or penalty for violating the open meeting law. <br />2.Any award that orders the city official to pay for the <br />opposing party's attorney's fees. <br />As an example, suppose a newspaper is successful in bringing an <br />open meeting claim against a city official. The judge awards a <br />$100 penalty against the official and also orders the official <br />to pay the attorneys fees incurred by the newspaper in bringing <br />the claim. The new coverage would not pay or reimburse either <br />the penalty or the attorneys fees awarded. <br />Note too that this coverage would not cover any legal costs that <br />the city might incur if the city itself were a party to the <br />Open Meeting Law litigation - unless, of course, it was part of <br />a suit that also included a covered claim for damages, as <br />discussed earlier. <br />YU, How will the Open Meeting Law Defense Cost Reimbursement <br />Agreement work? <br />The coverage is significantly different than other coverage <br />provided under the standard LMCIT coverage agreements in a <br />couple important ways. First, unlike LMCIT's liability <br />coveraoes, the Open Meeting Law coverage does not pay the legal <br />costs on the city official's behalf. Instead, LMCIT will <br />reimburse the city official for 80% of those costs, to a maximum <br />of $20,000, after the official has incurred those costs. The <br />city official remains responsible for paying his/her defense <br />attorney, including the 20% which LMCIT will not reimburse as <br />well as any costs over $20,000.