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Even though the U.K. Supreme Court ruled overwhelmingly in favor of policyholders in its landmark business interruption insurance decision Friday, lawyers say litigation over pandemic coverage is likely to continue amid fights over exactly how much insurers are willing to pay out.
An insurance expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers warned on Friday that the sector could have to pay out up to £120 million ($164 million) in claims connected to the havoc wrought by flooding in parts of England and Wales this week.
This past week in London has seen a top executive at Huawei take action against HSBC, British Gas file two fraud claims against MasterCard and Visa, and Chanel sue over a trademark infringement. Here, Law360 looks at those and other new claims in the U.K.
Insurers should consider the impact of last week's Supreme Court judgment on business interruption insurance for other types of claims, particularly those from flooding and storms, the Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday.
Lloyd's of London confirmed on Friday that its members are providing insurance for a controversial offshore oil drilling program in the Bahamas, a step that has attracted the anger of climate groups opposed to the project.
A consumer watchdog warned on Friday that insurance policyholders have had difficulties paying their premiums and that only a fraction have received refunds on motor cover after COVID-19 lockdowns kept vehicles off the road.
Two lawmakers have accused the Financial Conduct Authority of being stifled by "bureaucratic inertia" over its response to a major pensions transfer scandal and should establish a specialist unit for responding more rapidly to complaints.
Britain's financial lifeboat scheme said Friday it could hike its fees by almost half for the year ending in March 2022 to cover an expected surge in company failures linked to the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in claims against pension providers.
The Financial Conduct Authority has proposed setting a price cap of up to 30% on the fees that claims management companies charge customers who succeed with cases linked to financial services products, as it seeks to save consumers up to £9.6 million ($13.1 million) a year.
Stewarts Law LLP's Clive Zietman talks to Law360 about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, how technology has changed lawyers' jobs and why the U.K.'s class action system remains different from that in the U.S.
The owner of a landmark building in Liverpool that was damaged by fire has settled its High Court negligence claim against Reich Insurance Brokers.
Credit ratings agency Fitch has said that French life insurance businesses will be hit harder by COVID-19 in 2021 compared with 2020 because falling interest rates are denting investment portfolios.
The insurance industry has backed the European Commission's plans to empower a private advisory group to develop reporting standards for businesses on the climate-change risks they face and their environmental work.
The European Commission is considering ways to give businesses easier access to insurance cover for export credit to help them overcome economic challenges to the goods trade posed by the COVID-19 crisis.
The Financial Conduct Authority and the government's pensions department have inked an agreement allowing them to coordinate their activities and exchange information as they police finance companies that could be harming consumers.
A government scheme that pays out retirement pensions and other social benefits expects to see a multibillion-pound shortfall because of COVID-19.
Liquidators for a company behind an allegedly fraudulent scheme that promised returns to people who funded investment misselling claims kicked off a London trial Wednesday seeking more than £2 million ($2.7 million) from former executives and an insurer connected to the company.
The Serious Fraud Office said Wednesday it has been granted permission to take a further £16,000 ($21,860) from the pension pot of a convicted fraudster and former City trader to compensate his victims.
A civil engineering firm and insurer Zurich have countered a local council's £76 million ($104 million) lawsuit over alleged defects to a busway, claiming they are owed £1.2 million under a contract to complete the project.
The U.K. will provide insurance for care homes who take in patients testing COVID-19 positive but are unable to secure coverage, according to a government official.
The European Commission has said it aims to ensure that 30% of all bonds issued between 2021 and 2027 are dedicated to environmentally friendly projects as it seeks to emphasize sustainability in the bloc's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Almost half of last year's pension scheme transfers raised a warning that members could fall prey to scams, with 76% showing at least one danger sign in a single month, a survey has suggested.
Parliament announced on Wednesday that a controversial new package of pensions rules has passed through both houses of Parliament and awaits royal assent to become law — but experts say the tough new legislation may not be fully implemented for months.
Investors in financial services firm Towers Watson & Co. asked a Virginia federal judge Friday to grant initial approval to a $90 million settlement deal that would end federal and Delaware Chancery lawsuits over the company's 2016 merger with risk adviser and insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings.
Online pensions company PensionBee has set up a retirement scheme for self-employed people who lack minimum savings accounts or existing private pension plans.
The European Union has hit companies with fines of €272.5 million ($330 million) for breaching the bloc's data protection laws since they came into force in 2018, as the number of violations and penalties handed out rise, DLA Piper said on Tuesday.
More corporate clients than ever have pursued third-party litigation funding in England this year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to think more conservatively and try to prioritize the cash on their balance sheets.
Australia's recent decision to introduce a licensing regime for its litigation funders has stirred up attention across the industry, but experts say it appears unlikely that the U.K. will move beyond its current combination of light-touch regulation and court oversight.
UPDATED January 5, 2020, 11:57 AM GMT | As courts across the region take measures to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, some are restricting access and altering their procedures. Here is a roundup of changes.
The U.K. Supreme Court's judgment in Halliburton v. Chubb, likely the court's most important decision in the area of international arbitration in the past decade, articulates important guidelines for how English courts will police issues of arbitrator disclosure and bias, even as it fuels concerns among insurance policyholders, say Allan Moore and Ramon Luque at Covington.
Deciding whether to pay the demanded ransom during a cyberattack is complex and requires a careful balancing of the risks to the firm's business against the reputational and regulatory risks, but companies can also prepare for this eventuality by taking concrete steps now, say Rob Dedman and Kim Roberts at King & Spalding.
In the coming year, the Biden administration will likely align its policies on climate change, finance and trade more closely with those of international partners and organizations, leading to more coordinated action on climate standards that will be applied across the global economy, say consultants at C&M International.
Perspectives
Gerald Knapton at Ropers Majeski analyzes U.S. and U.K. experiments to explore alternative business structures and independent oversight for law firms, which could lead to innovative approaches to increasing access to legal services.
As the pandemic delays in-person arbitration hearings, mediator and arbitrator Theodore Cheng provides arbitrators with a checklist to examine the rationale and authority for compelling parties to participate in remote hearings.
The U.K. Supreme Court's recent Sevilleja v. Marex decision benefits creditors and other stakeholders by excluding their claims from the reflective loss principle, which precludes third-party complaints that merely reflect company loss, say Robert Fidoe and Jack Moulder at Watson Farley.
As the judiciary braces for widespread pandemic-driven contractual disputes, courts in England and Wales are showing enthusiastic support for mediation, both when determining the implications of a party's refusal to mediate and when assessing whether normal restrictions on the use of mediation-derived information apply, says Leah Alpren-Waterman at Watson Farley.
Opinion
The political agreement obtained last month on the first European Union-wide rules on collective redress illustrates the fact that the main goal of the authorities is to increase the number of class action claims rather than focus on the application of standard civil liability principles, says Sylvie Gallage-Alwis at Signature Litigation.
As indicated by the U.K.'s recent application to join the Lugano Convention, this is an "oven-ready" option for the U.K. for governing questions of jurisdiction and the enforcement of judgments with European Union countries after Brexit — but not without important differences from the current regime, say attorneys at Latham.
In light of legislative and public pressure in the U.S. and U.K. on insurers to cover business interruption losses related to COVID-19, reinsurers will face new questions regarding their obligation to cover claim payments, say Robin Dusek at Saul Ewing and Susie Wakefield at Shoosmiths.
Two recent U.K. Court of Appeal decisions have changed the operation of the choice-of-law test for arbitration — a resolution as significant as changing the test itself because it affects the implied choices of the contracting parties, say attorneys at Squire Patton.
Globally, we are already starting to see insolvency-related claims and a number of insurance, breach of contract, employment and securities class actions across numerous sectors. These and other claims will likely increase for U.K. businesses, say Tracey Dovaston and Fiona Huntriss at Boies Schiller.
As COVID-19-related fraud gains pace, U.K.-based practitioners should help combat money laundering by using alternative methods to verify that new clients are who they say they are, says Christopher Convey, a barrister at 33 Chancery Lane and chair of the Bar Council's Money Laundering Working Group.
Covington attorneys Alex Leitch and Harry Denlegh-Maxwell provide a bird's-eye view of how U.K. businesses will navigate the legal and economic aftermath of the pandemic, including discussion of where litigation funding, class actions, insurance disputes and force majeure fit it.
Utilizing virtual litigation technologies and participating in remote depositions require attorneys to beware of inadvertently violating their ethical obligations, including the principal duty to provide competent representation, say attorneys at Troutman Sanders.