Insurance & Reinsurance

4 New Square have an experienced insurance and reinsurance team, who have considerable expertise in all areas of the law. Insurance and reinsurance is a core area of the practices of many members of chambers.

Shortlisted for the ‘Insurance Set of the Year‘ (2018) award by Chambers & Partners UK.

One legal directory comments that we marshal “an impressive insurance offering, and has a strong bench of silks and juniors tackling high-value disputes in the area“.

4 New Square runs its own insurance blog, dedicated to recent developments and decisions in insurance law and practice.

Our work in this area extends across a wide range of issues, including issues of construction, the scope of indemnity, the effectiveness and scope of notifications and claims, non-disclosure, misrepresentation, breach of the duty of fair presentation, breach of warranty, breach of conditions precedent, fraud, co-insurance, aggregation and the inter-relationship between different layers of insurance. And it covers the full range of insurance, including various types of liability insurance (D&O, employers, public, product and professional indemnity), insurance of property, contractors all risks insurance, life insurance and reinsurance.

Our expertise in areas such as construction, product liability, professional liability and property damage provides a natural cross-over with the related areas of insurance.

We appear in trials and appeals in England and Wales and overseas. We also act as counsel and as arbitrators in arbitrations.

Members of chambers regularly contribute articles to specialist publications such as Insurance Law Monthly. Some are authors of specialist books and chapters on professional indemnity insurance and insurance claims.

Recent cases involving members of chambers include:

• AIG Europe Ltd v Woodman [2017] UKSC 18; [2017] 1 W.L.R. 18: Supreme Court decision on aggregation under the Solicitors’ Minimum Terms.
• Teal Assurance Co Ltd v WR Berkley Insurance (Europe) Ltd (No.2) [2017] EWCA Civ 25; [2017] Lloyd’s Rep IR 259: Test for ascertainment under liability insurance where money was paid into and out of an escrow account to fund remedial works.
• Impact Funding Solutions Ltd v Barrington Support Services Ltd [2016] UKSC 57; [2017] A.C. 73: Construction of exclusion clause in Solicitors’ Minimum Terms.
• Western Trading Ltd v Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) Plc [2016] EWCA Civ 1003; [2016] Lloyd’s Rep IR 643: The measure of indemnity and appropriate remedy under a policy of fire insurance when the insured had yet to reinstate the building destroyed by fire.