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Insurance UK

  • Featured

    Landmark Appeals Ruling Rescues Privilege In UK Probes

    By Richard Crump

    A U.K. appeals court's recent broad take on the protections legal privilege offers companies against demands from government prosecutors in a dispute over a Serious Fraud Office probe re-enshrines the confidentiality at the heart of the attorney-client relationship and offers comfort to multinationals facing cross-border investigations.

  • January 15, 2019

    British Airways Pension Trustees Off Hook For Appeal Fees

    A London judge told trustees of British Airways' pension scheme Monday that they won't have to foot the legal bill for asking the U.K. Supreme Court to make the airline pump £12 million ($15.7 million) more into the fund, though he expressed alarm it would cost £1.24 million for just a day-and-a-half-long hearing.

  • January 15, 2019

    AIG Must Pay Investors £3M In Italy Vacation Home Scam

    A London judge has ordered AIG to pay up to £3 million ($3.83 million) to investors who deposited millions for holiday homes in southern Italy that were never built, saying the insurer's decision to pay for the defense of the firm overseeing the mafia-linked development led to higher legal fees. 

  • January 15, 2019

    Brazil Says Aviation Insurers Have Been Swapping Info

    Brazil’s antitrust authority has launched an investigation into whether American International Group Inc. and 10 other companies in the aviation and aerospace insurance industry affected competition in the country by sharing sensitive pricing information.

  • January 15, 2019

    UK Lawmakers Reject Gov't Brexit Deal In A Landslide

    The U.K. Parliament overwhelmingly rejected the government’s draft agreement for leaving the European Union on Tuesday, pitching the Brexit process deeper into disarray and raising questions about whether the March 29 departure date can still be met.

  • January 15, 2019

    Crowell & Moring Poaches Finance Expert From Squire Patton

    Crowell & Moring LLP said Tuesday that it has snagged an experienced financial litigator from Squire Patton Boggs LLP to oversee the expansion of its London office.

  • January 15, 2019

    London Lawyer 1st Fined Over Panama Papers Revelations

    A partner at London law firm Child & Child on Tuesday became the first English lawyer to be punished as a result of revelations from the Panama Papers scandal after he was fined £85,000 ($109,000) by a U.K. disciplinary tribunal for failing to carry out money laundering checks.

  • January 15, 2019

    Insurance Premiums Rise Ahead of Brexit, Survey Shows

    Motor insurance customers were hit with a two percent rise in premiums during the final quarter of 2018, a survey revealed on Tuesday, as an insurance broker predicted further hikes because of tariffs and import costs caused by Brexit.

  • January 14, 2019

    Lloyd's Underwriters Say Reinsurance Pact Null In $3.7M Row

    Underwriters at Lloyd's of London have urged a Maryland federal court not to send to arbitration a $3.7 million coverage dispute with two insurers over a Baltimore warehouse that was destroyed in a fire, arguing the parties' agreement is void because the insurers misrepresented certain material facts.

  • January 14, 2019

    Quilt Co. Pushes Ahead With £2.3M Insurance Claim Suit

    A U.K.-based textile company has asserted in new court documents that it is entitled to a further £2.3 million ($2.9 million) insurance payout after a fire destroyed one of its properties, disputing the insurer's claim that it had agreed to amend the policy.

  • January 14, 2019

    CBI, PwC Warn Demand Is Falling For UK Financial Services

    Demand for Britain's financial services has fallen for the first time in five years, the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCoopers said Monday, blaming regulatory demands and uncertainty surrounding the U.K.'s impending exit from the European Union.

  • January 14, 2019

    Pension Trustees Win Appeal To Cap Annual Increases

    A London judge ruled on Monday that three members of a pension plan owned by Coats Group, an industrial thread and zip maker, are not entitled to an annual five percent increase to their investment pots, overturning two decisions by the deputy pensions ombudsman.

  • January 14, 2019

    UK's May Predicts No Brexit If Lawmakers Reject Her Deal

    Prime Minister Theresa May predicted on Monday that Brexit could be abandoned if MPs reject her draft Withdrawal Agreement as anticipated on Tuesday, as she warned that Parliament risks being thrown into “paralysis.”

  • January 14, 2019

    EU Privacy Reform Could Hamper Innovation, Insurers Warn

    European Commission proposals to reform the bloc’s electronic privacy laws are “unclear” and will create “legal uncertainty,” Europe’s insurers said on Monday, as they warned that the regulation could limit the ability of insurance companies to offer innovative policies to their customers.

  • January 11, 2019

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    The last week has seen Axa sue a private health-care provider, AIG take on shipper MSC and an appeal by a printer cartridge maker that has been fighting a multimillion-pound award to its pension trustees.

  • January 11, 2019

    EU Cross-Border Pension Reforms Set To Kick In Sunday

    After two years of planning, sweeping new rules geared towards improving the clarity and management of workplace pension funds will come into effect across the European Union on Sunday as member states write reforms on retirement funds into their national rule books.

  • January 11, 2019

    Insurance Fraudster Sentenced For Bogus Car Crash Scheme

    An insurance fraudster has been handed a suspended jail sentence at an English court after an investigation by the insurance industry and police linked him to more than 20 claims for car crashes that never took place.

  • January 11, 2019

    Banking Giants Hit With UK Suit Over Forex Rigging

    Hundreds of institutional investors have accused Barclays, HSBC and four other banking giants in London's High Court of conspiring to rig the foreign exchange market, seeking billions of dollars in damages for antitrust violations.

  • January 11, 2019

    Learn From National Regulators, EU Insurers Tell Watchdog

    Insurers urged Europe's top industry regulator on Friday to get national watchdogs with “real day-to-day experience" involved in its proposed new executive board, ahead of a proposed sweeping shake-up of the agency's structure.

  • January 11, 2019

    Steelworkers Promised Bigger Payments On Missold Pensions

    The U.K.’s Financial Services Compensation Scheme promised on Friday to give bigger payouts to former steel workers who have lost their investments through pensions misselling, after it handed more than £1 million ($1.3 million) to the clients of a single financial advisory company.

  • January 10, 2019

    US Pension Plans Can’t Shake $2.8B Denmark Refund Case

    A group of U.S. pension plans and their representatives can’t escape a $2.8 billion tax refund case brought by Denmark’s tax authority, a New York federal court has decided.

Expert Analysis

  • Worldwide Freezing Orders Can Backfire Without Proper Care

    Nicola McKinney

    Worldwide freezing orders, which preserve a respondent's assets until the outcome of the substantive case, are an important weapon in the arsenal of a commercial litigant. However, as FSDEA v. Dos Santos demonstrates, courts lay heavy obligations upon WFO applicants, says Nicola McKinney of Grosvenor Law Ltd.

  • UK Litigation And Guidance Highlight Cybersecurity Risk

    Guillermo Christensen

    Recent developments in the United Kingdom emphasize the importance of companies implementing cybersecurity measures proactively both to prevent incidents and to argue in mitigation when, not if, the company does suffer a data breach, say Guillermo Christensen of Ice Miller LLP and Anupreet Amole of Brown Rudnick LLP.

  • 2 BVI Cases Explore Scope Of Proper Purpose Test

    Rosalind Nicholson

    Two recent cases in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal have presented British Virgin Island courts an opportunity to develop a local jurisprudence regarding the BVI Business Companies Act and provide guidance on how the proper purpose test is to be applied, says Rosalind Nicholson of Walkers Global.

  • Last-Minute Brexit Preparations For EU Financial Firms

    Gilles Kolifrath

    As the deadline for a hard Brexit draws ever closer, financial firms operating in the United Kingdom or European Union must consider how possible outcomes will impact transactions and contractual relationships, and take steps to mitigate business interruptions, say Gilles Kolifrath and Linda Sharkey of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.

  • What To Expect From Serious Fraud Office In 2019

    Anna Gaudoin

    The coming year looks to be an interesting one for the U.K. Serious Fraud Office. With new Director Lisa Osofsky firmly in post, expectations are high that she will shake things up in the next few months, say Anna Gaudoin and Alison Geary of WilmerHale.

  • UK Privacy Rules That Can Catch You Off Guard

    Alexander Edwards

    The recent data breach scandal involving the Leave.EU campaign shows that the U.K. Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations is often overlooked by businesses, says Alexander Edwards of Rosling King LLP.

  • Autonomous Vehicles And UK Product Liability Law: Part 2

    Michaela Herron

    With autonomous vehicles expected to hit the streets of the United Kingdom soon, manufacturers, insurers and their legal counsel face the challenge of determining how the U.K.'s product liability laws will be applied to questions of negligence, evidence and contracts raised by self-driving vehicles, says Michaela Herron of Bristows LLP.

  • Autonomous Vehicles And UK Product Liability Law: Part 1

    Michaela Herron

    Autonomous vehicles present a number of challenges to the United Kingdom's product liability legal framework, especially with regard to the vehicles' heavy reliance on software, consumers' expectations of safety and the need for compliance with varying local traffic rules, says Michaela Herron of Bristows LLP.

  • A Victory For Legal Privilege In Cross-Border Investigations

    Antonia Apps

    The U.K. Court of Appeal's recent decision in Serious Fraud Office v. Eurasian Natural Resources is a substantial step toward confirming the application of legal privilege in internal investigations, and has significantly reduced the divergence in U.K. and U.S. privilege law, say attorneys with Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP.

  • UK And EU Crawl Toward Virtual Currency Regulation

    Jacqui Hatfield

    The lack of a harmonized approach to regulation of initial coin offerings in the EU is leading to a piecemeal approach across member states that will hamper blockchain developments, say Jacqui Hatfield and Rebecca Kellner of Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.