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Strategic Advisory

The team's involvement has allowed them to provide specialist advice on the recent civil justice reforms. Their understanding of the claims environment underpins advice on commercial and regulatory issues in the "claims space", supporting in-house legal teams in this area - including advice on policy wordings and on the extent of compulsory cover in RTA, EL and PL policies.

Overview

Strategic Advisory provide advice on operational issues relating to insurers' claims business and also advise on commercial agreements, including drafting bi-laterals and contracts with legal suppliers.

Our team works with insurers on policy wording issues drafting RTA policies, including those to be designed for EVs, the gig economy and EL and PL policies. We also advise on coverage issues and the extent of compulsory cover for injuries.

Our team were closely involved in the creation of the OIC Portal and related rules. That involvement means they can provide specialist advice on the impact of the whiplash reforms and future civil justice reforms.

We have been involved in several litigated cases of strategic importance for the insurance market, including most recently Rabot v Hasam, the mixed injuries test case currently before the Supreme Court.

Our Strategic Advisory team are well placed, given their detailed understanding of future transportation issues, to provide commercial advice on this fast developing area.

Featured experience

  • Rabot v Hassam and Biggs v Laditan

    • Strategic Advisory advised the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and their members on the mixed injury test cases.

     

    The team worked with the ABI and other stakeholders from claimant groups and the MIB to agree a framework agreement to get this issue tested in the Court of Appeal.

    Once cases were identified in July 2022, the team sought and were granted leapfrog from the county court to the Court of Appeal and the test cases were heard in December 2022.

    Judgment was handed down in January 2023 and the team worked with the ABI and its members and sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court in February 2023. Permission having been granted, the cases are now listed to be heard on 20 February 2024.

    This issue is of significant importance to the insurance industry. How to calculate an offer where there are both statutory and common law damages is an entirely novel point of law that needs clarity to ensure that such claims are appropriately settled and there is certainty that they have been.

  • Carroll v QBE Insurance (Europe) Ltd and others

    • Strategic Advisory acted for the 4th defendant in this matter. The claimant who had been on a night out in Liverpool hailed a black cab home. The taxi driver did not take him home, but stole his bank card and PIN and left the claimant alone, some 3 miles from his home.

    The claimant while attempting to make his way home, fell from a motorway flyover and was catastrophically injured.

    Proceedings were issued against the taxi driver (who had pleaded guilty to theft), the taxi owner and his insurers.

    Preliminary issues were then considered:

    1. Did the claimant’s injuries arise out of the use of the taxi on a road or public place within the meaning of section 145(3)(a) of the RTA?

    2. Given the basis for the Court’s finding on the first question and, in particular, the relevance or otherwise of the 1st defendant’s deliberate criminal acts, does the insurance policy issued by the insurer to the 2nd defendant respond to the claimant’s claims in tort against the 1st and 2nd defendants if those claims in tort are proved?

    We argued that the answer to 1 was plainly no and that therefore question 2 did not arise. The court held that this was plainly correct.

    This case, together with the team's earlier case of AXN v Worboys were significant in ensuring that the established meaning of the phrase, "caused by, or arising our of, the use of the vehicle", in section 145 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (RTA) was not extended.

     

    Our Strategic Advisory unit was instructed to advise on the implementation of the MoJ's whiplash reforms and of the OIC Portal, click here to read more.

     

Strategic Advisory key contacts

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Joanna Folan

Legal Director

Londres

Joanna Folan

Legal Director

Londres

+44 (0)20 7894 6350

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Peter Allchorne

Partner

Bristol

Peter Allchorne

Partner

Bristol

+44 (0) 117 918 2275

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Quiénes somos

¿Por qué elegir DAC Beachcroft?

Somos un bufete comercial de amplia base que presta servicios a una gran variedad de sectores, con una sólida herencia en seguros,
salud e inmobiliario. Combinamos excelentes conocimientos jurídicos y experiencia de vanguardia para diseñar soluciones en
que se adapten a las necesidades de nuestros clientes, a menudo con un uso inteligente de la tecnología.

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