Major insurers and their clients look to King & Wood Mallesons to help proactively manage their risks and resolve disputes when they arise. Our Insurance team is recognised for their highly pragmatic and commercial approach to resolving complex claims.
Recent market conditions created new stresses for insurers with clients focused on paying less but demanding more from their service providers. These pressures have led to an increase in disputes involving the insurance industry, and a greater focus on managing risk.
Combining deep industry knowledge and contacts with extensive litigation and arbitration experience, our Complex Claims team helps clients to resolve disputes involving professional indemnity, directors’ and officers’ liabilities, product liability and reinsurance issues. Their experience includes advising on disputes involving aggregation of claims, coverage queries and retrocession arrangements.
Drawing on this experience, we represented the insured Victorian Councils in the Royal Commission into the 2009 Victorian Bushfires, and advised more generally on the issues arising from the disaster. We also act on a number of claims for reinsurers in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia in relation to major ISR claims arising from the significant rainfall and flooding in Australia in early 2008.
In the last 12 months, our team has been at forefront of developments, including a decision in the New South Wales Court of Appeal that the full relief provisions of the NSW Insurance Act could be applied to contracts of reinsurance.