Francesca Kaye & Elliot Elsey herald the coming into force of the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010
Knowledge is power and an important tool in the management of risk in litigation.
For the claimant, the ability to recover its losses is the ultimate validation of litigation and is at its most uncertain following recession. As recession recedes, a potential claimant will often only have an insolvent party (and more importantly its insurance policy) to pursue.
Typically these claims relate to negligent advice, and the injured party needs to know if the insolvent insured’s professional indemnity policy will respond to the claim, or whether good money is being thrown after bad.
Insurers have long limited claimants’ rights to access information about policies as an effective tool to increase the perception of risk and encourage the abandonment or settlement of claims on significantly reduced terms.
Third parties’ rights to information about the insolvent insured’s policies will increase significantly with the imminent introduction of long overdue legislation.
Good things come…
The Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 (the 2010 Act) received