Who represents the defendant doctor?

Insurance companies will assign a defense attorney to represent a defendant physician. It’s my opinion after having done this for more than 25 years that there’s a real conflict of interest with that system, however. For example, the insurance company assigns a defense attorney to represent the doctor, and the defense attorney bills the insurance company for the hourly bills and attorneys’ fees. If the insurance company were to settle cases quickly, the defense attorney would not be able to bill the file. It’s been my experience, and it’s my opinion only, that these cases end up taking way longer than they should oftentimes because the defense attorney wants to continue billing the insurance company for additional work on the case.