Modern Insurance Magazine Issue 60

ASSOCIATIONS ASSEMBLE
Jonathan Scarsbrook
Title: President
Association: Association of Personal Injury
Lawyers (APIL)
An Overdue
Reform to
Bereavement
Damages
The death of a child is a parent’s worst
nightmare come true. The heartache is
compounded further when a child is killed
because of negligence.
In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, a grieving
father will then discover that he is not eligible for
statutory bereavement compensation if he is not
married to, or in a civil partnership with, the child’s
mother.
It is not unusual in 2023 for British couples to become
parents without getting married first. More than half of
births last year were to unwed parents.
In a written ministerial answer in April, the Ministry
of Justice (MoJ) implied that the relationships these
fathers have with their children are not as close as they
would be if the children were not “illegitimate”. This
stigmatises both the fathers and their children. The
MoJ’s approach, not to mention the language used,
demonstrates how deeply flawed the Government’s
attitude is to the fabric of modern families.
APIL members often bear the burden of telling
bereaved relatives that their relationship to a loved one
is not recognised by the law on statutory bereavement
damages. When we told our members about the
Government’s most recent refusal to reform the law and
asked them for help, the membership was galvanised.
Members are writing to their MPs in their droves about
the need to reform the antiquated and offensive law on
bereavement damages.
MPs are often unaware of the fact that statutory
bereavement damages are only available for a very
limited number of grieving relatives, and that the
statutory sum they are given is very low. They are
invariably shocked when they learn the truth, as are
most people.
Bereavement damages is a
key campaign issue for APIL.
We continue to highlight these
issues with parliamentarians
and the public alike. Reform is
long overdue.
Laurence
Besemer
Title: Chief Executive Officer
Association: FOIL
(Forum of Insurance Lawyers)
Heather
Sanderson
Title: Vice-President
Association: CDL
(Canadian Defence Lawyers)
Collaboration is Key
International co-operation between legal
organisations and insurance organisations
is an increasingly important tool as climate
change challenges the insurance industry.
AM Best reported that natural disasters cost the global
economy US$343bn in 2021, which is US$46bn more
than 2020 and significantly over average for the 21st
Century. In the main, these losses have been driven
by secondary weather-related perils such as severe,
regional weather events, rather than primary perils like
earthquakes and hurricanes.
These severe weather events do not respect national
borders, and have fueled a worldwide issue of availability
and accessibility of property insurance. The issue
must be addressed through international co-operation
between industry and legal professional organisations.
The benefit of international co-operation was evident
through a recent joint webinar hosted by the Forum
of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) and Canadian Defence
Lawyers (CDL). The panel advocated that insurers must
share their data to enable a co-ordinated response in
support of the insurance industry as it transitions to the
changing weather landscape. There must be further
collaboration to change wordings and build back more
resilient structures in areas away from flood plains and
landslide risk.
The panel also addressed a gap between the actual loss
and the insured loss - as well as its impact - which is
fueling a climate change liability risk. Challenging D&O
policies, well-funded NGO’s are calling-out greenwashing
and holding corporations to their net zero commitments
by questioning their carbon neutral plans.
Claims are also being made against a failure to build
weather resilient structures, holding designers and
contractors to a higher standard than existing building
codes. The panel noted that these claims challenge
traditional CGL liability wordings, which carry a long-tail
risk. International co-operation is required to implement
wording changes in light of these liability risks.
The bottom-line message of the panel is that without
co-operation in these key areas, profitability will almost
certainly be impacted.
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