OFFSHORE SECURITY?

The Arc Legal team regularly provides media comment on relevant issues. Below is from an article published in the insurance trade publication, Insurance Age, on Legal Expenses.

There have been doubts about the reliability of offshore legal expenses insurers to provide financial security in the event of a claim. Here, Ralph Savage questions the safety of Hold Harmless agreements

It is often the offshore providers that have the finger pointed at them with claims that they use such agreements liberally. However, their onshore counterparts appear to be equally guilty of the practice. Richard Finan, director at Arc Legal Assistance, explains: “There is one quite prominent LEI provider that writes cover on a very low rate, only on the basis that whoever takes the cover from them is doing it on a Hold Harmless basis. We’ve been in situations where we’ve been under attack from providers like that and have had to ask the broker or solicitor, ‘are you being asked to do it Hold Harmless?’“

Mr Finan explains that a broker on its books advised Arc that it had received a rate far lower than previous quotes – approximately half the premium: “After a few questions, we found it was being done on a Hold Harmless and thankfully the broker moved away from it and stayed with us. These are the type of questions that brokers need to ask.”

Mr Finan continues: “The regulator should look into this but it hasn’t so far. It’s the broker’s responsibility to make sure they are selling a genuine policy. They need to look behind the paper and see what’s happening.”

The full feature can be found at www.insuranceage.com