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Regional branch of ADR net
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Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Solicitors to pay more when giving poor service
The fine for poor service to clients has been raised from £1,000 to £5,000 by the Office for the Supervision of Solicitors (OSS).
David Rolls, brought in as an interim executive during the summer, has been appointed acting director of the..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Accident claims service for North of England
Law firm Lupton Fawcett have introduced a new comprehensive accident claims service, the first such in the North of England, providing one-stop facilities for insurers. This includes full investigation of claim, collation of documentation,..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Human rights practice
England’s first dedicated human rights practice to be opened by Irwin Mitchell, responding to needs arising from the Human Rights Act. This is by no means a ‘bandwagon’ approach as senior partner, Michael Napier, was the first..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Mediation for catastrophic injury
..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Limited liability partnerships
Following widespread consultation, enabling legislation has been published to allow this new format of operation and protection of law-firm partners from liability for the errors of others.
Widely welcomed by the legal profession, there is criticism..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Liability insurance in China
While AIG successfully boosted the growth of life insurance to China in 1992, property insurance developed at a slower pace. Now, however, changes in the domestic insurance and legal systems has opened the market for a growth of liability..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
German demand for PI cover to rise
The trend for German firms to enter into co-operation with international partners is expected to lead to increased demand for professional liability cover, according to German reinsurer Cologne Re, with big offices seeking cover for sums up to..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
DAS legal expenses UK (1998)
Pre-tax profits of specialist legal expenses provider, UK and, more recently, Ireland, rose by 5% to £10.9mn in 1998 on gross premium increase of 4.1% to £38.6mn. However, worsening claims experience and a £1.3mn technical provision..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Equitas pays more
Lloyd’s reinsurance vehicle, Equitas, paid out £1.25bn in claims in the 6-months to September 1999, up on £1.01bn in the corresponding period a year before. An investment loss of £48mn had been broadly balanced by a decrease in..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Losses for Lloyd’s – but still doing well
Figures released by Lloyd’s indicate overall losses for 1997 and 1998 although 71 of the 165 syndicates operating in 1997 are projecting profits as are 50 of the 156 operating in 1998.
‘Following record profits between 1993 and 1996, we..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Really secure
Comprehensive liability cover for real estate investment trusts, pension fund advisers and other real estate owners is launched by Marsh Inc, underwritten by AIG-subsidiary Lexington Insurance Co.
A single policy will cover real estate companies for..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
RSA amend EIL
Royal & SunAlliance are to amend their Environmental Impairment Liability Policy to accommodate measures outlined in the DETR Draft Guidance Notes to the Environment Act. Changes will address the risk to current owners where local authorities,..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Pollution protection for lenders
Chubb Insurance and Environmental Insurance Management have produced the Lenders’ Environmental Insurance Programme (LEIP), to offer protection to institutions with loan portfolios secured by property within the UK. Launched to coincide with..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Careless choice of clients
A survey of 200 law firms by accountants PwV warns that only 27% have a formal risk management procedure and 46% have no system to avoid taking on the ‘wrong type’ of client. All the big accountancy firms have controls to reduce the risk..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
New York rules in favour of Lloyd’s
Two non-accepting Lloyd’s Names are to pay £206,658 and £269,293 respectively. The Supreme Court of New York ruled against Lorraine and Oliver Grace, leaders of 246 Equitas-refusers in the US, this followed similar judgment in..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Liquidators buy biggest legal costs cover
Taylor Woodings, liquidators of Australian-based Bell Group (formerly run by Alan Bond, jailed for fraud) have purchased a £15.6mn policy in the London Market. This will cover their costs should they lose their action – in the Federal..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Pension mis-selling could come to court
The law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, warns that pension mis-selling could come to court, noting that while regulators have, so far, apportioned compensation and penalties in ‘judicial’ manner, professional indemnity insurers could..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Mis-sold ISASs
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has warned banks, building societies and fund managers to guard against the ‘mis-buying’ of the new savings vehicle, ISAS. More effort was needed to ensure that customers knew they could but only..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Suspension — not hanging!
The two company directors found guilty of corporate manslaughter, through gross negligence in ignoring excessive hours worked by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel, have each received a suspended sentence. The driver himself, who pleaded guilty..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
What the papers weigh!
Training video and notes on safe handling of newspaper and magazine bundles.
The HSE notes that up to one third of all reported injuries arise from manual handling – and many more go unreported through lack of recognition of cumulative cause...
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Sacked for refusing 6am start
After fourteen years working as lab technician for American multinational food processing firm in Kent, Archer Daniels Midland, Karen Barker was required to work 6am shifts on her return to work after having a baby. She was called to a disciplinary..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Rise in recorded racism
Racism is not confined solely to the workplace, though compensation for such is becoming more common [see items in Awards & Settlement]. Racist incidents recorded last year by the police, rose by 75%, apparently reflecting changed police..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Focus on Trade Union legal services
According to the report of this name (published by the TUC at £10), Trade Unions took up around 50,000 personal injury cases in 1998 winning 96% thereof. These resulted in compensation of £308mn, up 10% on the previous year, mostly..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Avoiding Stress-Related Claims
Speaking at the recent IQPC Conference on Stress-Related Employment Claims, Roger Steel, partner in Eversheds employment group, provided a comprehensive review of the obligations of employers and avoidance of stress-related claims.
1 Some..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
New fuel tank initiative
An initiative from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will require a new system of inspection and maintenance to reduce the risk of fuel-tank explosions in existing commercial aircraft. Covering 6,000 aircraft, from Boeing 747 jumbos to small..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
BA fined for illegal cargo
British Airways has been fined £40,000 plus £32,000 costs in Isleworth Crown Court for the illegal transportation of an oxygen generator on a flight from London to Dallas.
Earlier this month both British Midland and Britannia Airways were..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
SilkAir crash suit
The husband of one of the 104 who died in the December 1997 SilkAir crash has filed a wrongful death suit against Boeing in the Delaware District Court.
Boeing is incorporated in Delaware, and that venue was chosen – despite the flight being..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
EgyptAir: causation not a major factor
Lawyers representing the families of the victims of the crash of EgyptAir flight 900, with 217 deaths, say causation will not be a major factor in litigation.
Most major airlines are signed up to a 1997 agreement that makes them liable for any crash..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Greenpeace opposes ‘recycling’
With claims that the practice of sending vessels for dismantling and scrap to third-world countries was a ‘toxic waste dumping practice under the guise of recycling’, protests have been staged at Alang Beach in West India.
The 14 vessels..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
P&I dubs buy extra US$500mn reinsurance
The International Group of Protection & Indemnity Clubs is to raise reinsurance protection in respect of oil spills by $US500mn. This is expected to lead to premium savings for tankers operating in US waters, most of which already buy excess..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
‘Vegetarian crocodiles’
‘Ships that do not experience claims are like vegetarian crocodiles.’ So said Henry Lawford, director of loss prevention services, presenting the 10-year claims analysis by largest marine mutual the UK P&l Club.
The study is based on..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Exxon claims to be pursued in Alaska
The Alaska Supreme Court has overturned rulings from lower courts so as to allow seven local governments and three Alaskan Native villages to file legal actions against Exxon Corp for recovery of damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill.
The..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Abandoned seafarers
First steps have been taken to set up an international fund to assist sea-farers abandoned by shipowners in difficulties, and guarantee compensation for injury of death. This was at a joint meeting of the International Maritime Organisation and the..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Sleipner
The loss of the Norwegian high-speed catamaran ferry Sleipner,
with (at the time of writing) around 18 deaths from among the very low passenger list of 88, has led to criticisms of security measures and rescue procedures and reopens the maritime..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Power line studies
Two studies on power lines (and one on radiation) point to different conclusions. The study from radiation expert Prof Denis Henshaw et al at Bristol University has been published in two papers in the International Journal of Radiation Biology.
The..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
OPs: ‘no evidence’
Examination of the findings on organophosphates by the government Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food leads to a conclusion of ‘no evidence’ in both senses. Media reports say the committee found no evidence that farmers and..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Equal pay: 13-year backdate
The Canadian government is required to compensate public sector workers for low pay over the last 13 years, following a ruling in the Federal Court of Canada. The Public Service Alliance of Canada, on behalf of around 200,000 members (mostly women)..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
First Holocaust life insurance settlement
Italian insurer Assicurazioni Generali has agreed settlement of US$1.25mn to the descendants of a life insurance policyholders who lost out because of Nazi persecutions during World War II. The settlement, the first of its kind, has been..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
ABC News to pay US$2 only
A damages award of US$5.5mn against ABC News was reduced to a mere US$2 by the US Court of Appeals. The original damages were a jury award in respect of a news report that Food Lion supermarket chain sold unsanitary food, after deciding that..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
DuPont to face more benlate claims
The Delaware Supreme Court is expected to allow further claims against DuPont, in relation Benlate. These arise from the alleged fraudulent withholding of information about risks associated with the fungicide so as to encourage growers to accept..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Seven electric utilities to be sued
The US Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are to sue seven US utilities for expansion of capacity at coal-fired generating stations without permits.
This will be the largest clean air enforcement action in two decades,..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Tobacco update
French court finds tobacco group liable
for death of smoker, in first case of its kind. A civil court in the city of Montargis held that the former state tobacco monopoly, Seita, was 60% liable for the victim’s smoking up to 1969 (when he..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
South African asbestos case dismissal for appeal
Following the rejection by the Court of Appeal of the claim by around 3,000 former workers – mostly South Africans – against UK company Cape, solicitors seek an appeal to the House of Lords.
Despite argument that the appellants would be..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Italian med-mal shortfall
The Italian Association of Insurance & Reinsurance Brokers (AIBA) has put forward proposals to address shortfalls in coverage for medical malpractice risks, noting that the liability needs of Italian hospitals and other health bodies is..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Medical litigation costs rise in Ireland
Figures from the Medical Defence Union show a 460% rise in the cost of medical litigation, in Ireland, between 1990 and 1998. Four recent obstetrics-based cases led to awards totalling IR£4.6mn. While only 2% of MDU members were obstetricians,..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Environmental risk to the young
A new reference work, the Handbook of Paediatric Environmental Health,
will help doctors in the diagnosis of environmentally-caused illnesses in children. The aim is to raise the awareness of doctors to such hazards as lead poisoning and pesticides..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
30% of Fen Phen takers may have problems
A study by the Mayo Clinic, for the US Federal Drug Administration, estimates up to 30% of users of the Fen Phen diet regimen, or of Redux, may have heart valve abnormalities even without symptoms of heart disease. Around 6mn Americans are believed..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
NHS slowness puts patients at risk
The House of Commons Health Select Committee identifies the slowness of the National Health Service (NHS) in dealing with complaints as putting patients at risk of continued treatment by incompetent doctors. They called for more openness, ie full..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Brain damage in Gulf veterans
A study by Robert Haley, epidemiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas, has identified brain damage in Gulf veterans with severe neurological problems.
His work developed that carried out earlier in 1999 (New..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Unwanted births
Three recent cases address the issues of pregnancy, birth and the subsequent upbringing of a child, where the parents had been led to believe this would not occur.
In McFarlane v Tayside Health Board,
arising from a failed vasectomy, the House of..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Retention of infant organs
Until the conclusion of the public inquiry, it will be unclear whether the wholesale retention of the organs of at least 850 infants who died in hospital was an aberration of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, or more..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Case update
Subject Employment references
Result A reference must be ‘true, accurate and fair’ – to the employer as well as the former employee. Employers trying to offload an unwanted employee by providing an exaggerated reference risk suit..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Genetic modifications
Maize, genetically modified to resist insects,
has been found to excrete toxin into the soil which remains active for 25 days. Previous research showed the toxin was released from pollen but the continual leakage from the root system could lead to..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
BSE, CJD and OPs
BSE inquiry,
set up in December 1997 under Lord Phillips, will cost £30mn, according to latest government estimates. The much-delayed and over-budget report, now expected by March/April 2000, has already cost the taxpayer £20mn. The costs..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Awards and settlements
First case of its kind to be revalued
since the House of Lords decision in Wells v Wells
on assessment of life needs. Damages for brain damage and cerebral palsy of now-15-year-old girl, through oxygen starvation at birth, have been increased by..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Sulphate damages concrete
Californian homeowners have received US$1.75mn, around US$73,000 per property, in respect of sulphate-attacked concrete used in the construction of their homes.
Brighton Homes, Arnel Development Corp, subcontractor James Mock and supplier..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Public warning unlawful
Consumer protection officers acted unlawfully in issuing a public warning on the safety of babywalkers; so said Lord Bingham in the High Court.
This decision sets restrictions on the way trading standards officers can react to goods that they..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Man stuck in lift seeks US$25mn
The editor of Business Week
magazine, Nicholas White, got stuck in a lift – for 40 hours – when he went to take a smoking break. Guards failed to answer alarms or notice him on the security video. Three weeks later he has still not..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Holocaust bank accounts
The three-year work of the commission investigating the role of Swiss banks has found 54,000 dormant accounts, 10 times the number estimated by the banks in 1997.
While having failed to find evidence that the banks destroyed documents so as to deny..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Clifford Chance faces Chinese claim
The High Court will hear a £54mn claim against law firm Clifford Chance, in relation to alleged negligent advice to a consortium on the building of a Chinese power station.
Even should it lose – which is unusual in such cases, settlement..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
LSD action
Former patients, prescribed the drug LSD between 1950 and the early 1970s, seek compensation from the National Health Service (NHS). During that period, LSD was used routinely for conditions such as morning sickness, postnatal depression and..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Damages sought to cover cost of surrogacy
Now 46-year-old Margaret Briody, unable to give birth due to medical negligence during the (second) stillbirth of a baby when she was 20, seeks damages award to cover the costs of surrogacy treatment.
Knowsley Health Authority was held to have been..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000
Year 2000 – day of doom?
At the time of writing (pre-Millennial Madness), we know not whether there will be a widespread computer meltdown, with unimaginable knock-on effects, or whether the whole Y2K anxiety is on a par with that of apocalyptic cults, awaiting a spiritual..
Online Published Date:
01 January 2000
Appeared in issue:
114 - 01 January 2000