It's a simple rule: You can't get attorney's fees from your insurance company when you represent yourself during the brief period the insurance company is pondering your tender. Now it's one that's published.
The lawyers who briefly represented themselves, by the way, are the owners of the Jack London Lodge in Glen Ellen, Thomas and Linda Richards. So ponder that gig the next time you're thinking about ditching the law. Except also realize that, as here, the law may follow you everywhere. Especially if you allegedly serve alcohol to a 20-year old who then ends up dying in a car accident on the way home, and even more so when your insurance company doesn't do what you want it to do (or at least fast enough).
