Speaking at the recent annual meeting in London of the Association, Paul Rowland said that such a council could provide valuable guidance on the impact of court decisions and on the need to update or clarify insurance policy wordings. It could help prevent issues over interpretations of market practice escalating into costly and time-consuming disputes.
Rowland said that London may lack the advantage of Scandinavian-based insurers who had the back up of commentary from their Nordic Marine Insurance Plan. This plan is a set of standard policy conditions and is based on an agreement between the Nordic Association of Marine Insurers (Cefor) and the shipowners’ national associations of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
He said: “I believe the [Nordic] commentary performs a crucial role in explaining how claims matters are dealt with on a day-to-day basis without the need for recourse to a ‘higher’ level.”
Producing a commentary relating to Institute Time Clauses, American Institute Hull Clauses and other policy conditions on which hull insurance is written in London would be far too extensive an undertaking, but “perhaps claims guidelines would be useful, or even some form of claims council.”
The committee comprising representatives of insurers, shipowners, adjusters and academics who kept the Nordic Plan under review “must be hugely valuable,” said Rowland. Perhaps London could find a claims council of similar value. This body might include claims professionals from insurers, shipowners, brokers, average adjusters, lawyers and possibly P&I representatives.
“It could meet periodically to consider claims issues and the practical repercussions of legal decisions and whether policy terms require amending, new wordings produced or whether simply an issue was so obscure that it is unlikely to come up very often.
“It might also consider issues that have been spotted on the horizon. I am a bit of an idealist and therefore I do feel that any claims council or market forum which, if possible, moves beyond protecting the interests of any particular group could be of greatest value,” he explained.
Rowland said that the AAA had, to some extent, played its part in terms of practical claims handling by introducing various Rules of Practice. “I believe this has helped considerably in reaching a market consensus in terms of the treatment of certain practical claims issues. However, perhaps more is now required.”
Rowland, who is a director of Richards Hogg Lindley, said that much effort was rightly being made to attract younger people to professions engaged in marine claims handling and adjusting. Overall, however, the numbers had fallen “and to some extent we may be living off the family silver” in terms of relying to a great degree on the older, experienced people.
“This means that there is considerable pressure on younger professionals to study and acquire knowledge and expertise at a far faster rate than was required of some of us when we were their age,” he said.