UK Insurance And Reinsurance Disputes Annual Review 2021

• Published date: 07 February 2022
• Law Firm: Herbert Smith Freehills
• Author: Herbert Smith Freehills

Introduction

Our Insurance Annual Review looks back at the last 12 months and brings together the various articles that we have produced on key cases and developments during the course of 2021

As many of you will know, we have produced this publication for many years for our clients and contacts with an interest in the UK insurance and reinsurance market. This year we have taken a slightly different approach to the publication recognising the benefit of online and electronic resources, particularly as most of us are working from home for more of the time. Rest assured that you will still find the same content on key cases and developments from the past 12 months but we have also included additional commentary putting these updates in context with links to our articles for more detailed analysis on our blog: www.hsfnotes.com/insurance. For those of you interested to see an overview of the cases we have covered this year, we have included a section called 'The Year in Cases at a Glance', with links to our articles on each decision

2021 began with a bang for our team and from an insurance law perspective with the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) COVID-19 business interruption test case handed down on 15 January. This was the most significant insurance case of the last decade. While the case brought clarity to thousands of business policyholders, some outstanding questions on some claims remained. Although a few decisions were handed down during the course of 2021, others are still going through the courts. Our section here on COVID-19 business interruption claims gives an overview of the developments in 2021 and the current state of play.

Elsewhere, the courts were kept busy on numerous insurance disputes determining issues such as policy construction (including aggregation and jurisdiction clauses), as well as non-disclosure. Indeed, 2021 brought us one of the first avoidance judgments for breach of the duty of fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015. Professional liability was also in focus this year with the Supreme Court revisiting the SAAMCO principle and the courts looking closely at an insurance broker's duties at placement.

Outside the insurance world, 2021 was a big year for developments relating to class actions with particularly significant decisions relating to transnational torts, competition and data class actions. We also saw the introduction of the new rules relating to the preparation of witness statements and an extension and amendments to the Disclosure Pilot. Our General Interest section explores these developments and others in more detail. Our Health & Safety section looks at the implications of two significant rulings...