Marsh insurance has released a new report, discussing the key areas that may be common to ship versus ship collisions, dangerous events with the potential to bring areas of difficulty to insurance claims.
As notes, failure to be proactive and act efficiently in the event of a claim could jeopardise the ability to recover liability under the insurance, as well as result in legal complexities and financial exposures. Failure to act efficiently and appropriately could:
- Jeopardise the ability to recover in full under the collision liability insurance.
- Undermine future strategies that seek to minimise liability towards the opponent(s).
- Result in unwanted legal and jurisdictional complexities.
- Create avoidable delays and additional financial exposures.
Marsh highlights that:
- Early engagement with insurers, legal representation, technical survey experts, and crew are vital components in the management of collision cases
- Under no circumstances should any communication be sent that admits or infers an acceptance of liability. To do so may severely jeopardise a client’s ability to recover under their insurance policy
In every case, the lawyer should advise the client whether the offer of security from the containership interests is fit for purpose. Among other things, they will need to consider the following:
- Is the guarantee provider financially secure?
- Is the security correctly worded and conforms to known standards?
- Is the quantum of guarantee sufficient to meet the assured’s global losses arising from the collision?
Further information may be found in the following report:
