Reading Room Document

United States Attorney's Representation of Private Insurance Company in Civil Litigation

It is not improper for the Department of Justice to admit the liability of the United States on an indemnity claim in civil litigation, even if the Department previously refused to enter into a "hold harmless" agreement with the party seeking indemnity. Representation arrangement, whereby the United States Attorney will appear as counsel both for a private insurance group and for the United States in the same civil litigation, creates no ethical difficulty, given the coincidence of both parties' interests and their consent. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/22556/download.

January 9, 1981