POLICY WORDINGS AND CLAIMS
Whilst working hard to support you through the COVID-19 crisis – to help you weather the storm and continue to deliver for you, our clients, (many of whom we know will be facing severe disruption) we have received a large number of enquiries from clients on their insurance arrangements and cover.
Independent Legal Advice: COVID-19 Policy Wording Review
Clients need our support and guidance, which is why, in partnership with our Network provider, Bluefin Network, we have been able to engage with Fenchurch Law – a City of London law firm specialising in insurance – to get an independent, legal opinion on a wide range of policy wordings on your behalf. Bluefin are working with Fenchurch Law to review policy wordings across 92 insurance providers and more than 1,000 products to:
- Determine what cover attaches to each in respect of COVID-19 related claims, mainly under the sections of Business Interruption, Denial of Access, Notifiable Disease or Public Authority wordings.
- Assess the likelihood of success in the event clients wish to challenge declined claims.
Given the scale of this work, the review is being prioritised according to the customer volume per insurer – starting with those insurers with the most clients on cover. Please keep a look out for further updates and information as we will be updating progress regularly.
Case-by-case Legal Support
In the meantime, we understand that some clients are suffering declined claims and may need urgent support. So, to further assist Bluefin Network members, Fenchurch Law will continue to assess declined claims on a case-by-case basis – where the claimant falls outside of the Financial Ombudsman Service qualifying criteria1.
Fenchurch Law will review the policy wording and may be appointed to engage with the insurer on the policyholder’s behalf if there are grounds to raise a challenge. However, costs incurred for doing so will fall outside of Legal Review and will be at the client’s expense.
1FOS qualifying criteria: – SME with an annual turnover less than £6.5 million and employing fewer than 50 people or with a balance sheet total less than £5 million at time of the complaint
