Possible medical malpractice claims

There is concern over cheap breast implants could lead to professional indemnity medical malpractice claims

There is serious doubts over some breast implants and thousands of women who have been advised to have them removed.

There has been several cases of cancer linked to a company called Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) and suggestion that these implants should be removed.

PIP was apparently one of the worlds largest suppliers of breast implants, the company has since been shut down and it's product banned based on it causing serious injury.

This of course opens up claims against the directors & officers insurance (if still operating) and of course against any professional indemnity insurance or medical malpractice covers.

The French authorities have already began a criminal investigation. Directors and officers could be charged and after the Health Product Safety Agency said that it could no longer exclude the possibility that industrial silicone was used in the implants.

Unemployment Figures Strain On Government Payment Liability

The high unemployment figures as 16th November 2011 in the UK which have reached in addition of 2.60 million. Worrying particularly as many of the unemployed are young between the age of 16-24, which accounts for nearly 1.02 million of the total unemployed figures. Many companies from across most sectors are either not taking on more staff or making redundancies saying they are with the government trying its hardest to help youth unemployment, by introducing apprentice schemes, many say this is not enough.

Some growth areas can be found and tends to be in specialist areas, for instance Broker Houses, Insurance Brokers dealing in Professional Indemnity Insurance & Directors and Officers Insurance, where there has been a growing demand for this type of cover. A spokes woman for Professional Insurance Agents Ltd, Karler Mears, pointed out that the professional financial sectors have started to see more claims of Professional Indemnity and Directors & Officers type policies, and therefore new staff to support the extra demand being received by companies has opened up vacancies, which could help reduce unemployment in our area and location.

Leveson Enquiry/Insurance Liable

What has the Leveson enquiry brought to the table, the behaviour of the met police, the way news paper reporters have been conducting themselves, the involvement of senior management and proprietors of news paper groups.

Andy Hayman a former assistant commissioner of the met who headed up the original 2006 police inquiry into phone hacking at the news of the world, was offered a job as a columnist at the times newspaper, coincidently a part of the Rupert Murdoch's empire.

It has been suggested that Hayman used his column to spring hoad a defence of the hacking activity saying there were only a few victims other people involved at the time was John Yates another former commissioner at the met, and was taken to task about his hiring of a former deputy editor of the news of the world Neil Wallis, who in himself now a phone hacking suspect.

Graham stated that the original phone hacking investigation failed total to acknowledge the massive scale of the wrong doing in the area.

It is also clear that with reference to the mulcaine papers, many other individuals other than these identified in the criminal charges, were or could be involved in phone jacking. Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaine have been charged with illegally intercepting voicemail.

Where does this all lead in respect to insurance cover in place or what to consider for both companies and individuals clearly from a company perspective they would need to look to any Professional neglect, individuals and consultants would be facing the same type of claims against their policies to help with any defence and legal cost or damages awarded.

The other clear area where directors could be exposed would be  on any directors and officer of a corporation such as the 'news of the world'. New international both professional indemnity and directors and officers insurance should be very much part of the companies or individuals portfolios of insurances as both policies could respond to help directors or individuals defend themselves against any allegations.

Medical Mal-Practice Insurance

Medical MalPractice insurance has become an area where protection has become very important to the various growing professions.

Apart from the obvious areas such as doctors, nurses, dentists etc, there are many classes that are less well known, for example - nutritionists, complementary therapists, paramedics, first aiders, acupuncturists, masseurs and reflexologists and who all will need Professional Indemnity insurance / Medical Indemnity type insurance policies to protect them against possible legal claims, law suits and damages awarded to them in the event of their neglect when treating a client, which most Professional Indemnity or Medical Indemnity would respond to. The demand because of the new professions has never been higher.

Insurance Claims in respect to Professional Indemnity

There has been a recent increase of claims in respect to professional indemnity insurance for various professions particularly solicitors PI and independent financial advisors. In addition the banks who have miss sold an awful lot of policies via their insurance services sections where they have been suggesting compliance and offering them a personal injury and redundancy plans etc which were completely wrong for many of those clients.

It probably hasn't gone past anybody's notice of recent weeks where massive amounts of both television and radio advertising is encouraging people to make claims if they have taken out one of these plans. This will only cumulate into claims being made against professional indemnity insurance policies.

The fact remains that these insurance plans should never have been sold in the way that they were and that both banks and some (but very few) brokers targeted people and coerced them into purchasing policies that either didn't fit the circumstance or were in fact totally wrong. When it comes to treating customers fairly this has not been adhered to in the promotion of these plans.

It is therefore reasonable to assume that insurers who have covered various businesses that sold these plans with professional indemnity, can expect some big claims to be made.

There is also a consideration here that many of the brokers or organizations that sold these plans and had PI insurance in place, may very well have excesses to pay themselves.

The moral of the story here is that anyone selling insurance services, should not necessarily be put under pressure to sell a particular product and clear definitions and explanations should always be given to a client before they purchase such a policy.

How does treating customers fairly impact on Professional Indemnity (PII) TCF

There has been a great deal of talk about treating customers fairly over the years, with the FSA heading up an aggressive campaign to insure that its rules were meet in this arena.

We all of course need to have definitions and explained criteria for TCF which were not always clear and maybe just a little over the top when it came to 'smaller brokers'.

So some years on has TCF helped the clients we deal with? Has it made an impact? It would be fair to say that TCF has helped both clients and brokers alike, setting a standard for us to offer as an industry, however many of the set out rules were totally unnecessary and over the top. Simple rules to abide and police would have been the answer.

With regards to Professional Indemnity insurance claims over this period directly related to TCF have not been a problem for brokers and the cost for Professional Indemnity insurance has not increased in the broker sectors, although it would be fair to say that perhaps in other areas such as banking and the motor industry where insured products have been sold, Professional Indemnity insurance claims have increased and rightly so.

Professional Indemnity rates still low 2011

Apart from the obvious high rated professions such as solicitors, independent financial advisers and survey valuation companies, the general rates for Professional Indemnity insurance have remained very low or static even for professions such as accountants and architects. The most competitive prices and costs with good policy definitions and clear explained (PII) wordings are miscellaneous professions such as IT consultants, business consultants and management consultants, the wordings for these classes have also been improved by some Insurers and provides Professional Indemnity insurance covers with any one claim and low excesses. PII brokers are also able to obtain worldwide cover including USA & Canada with low policy excesses.

Director of Professional Insurance Agents ltd, Graham Hearsey states that even though cheap and low prices are readily available for many classes on Professional Indemnity, that this would be a real danger to insurers and underwriters and that prices should clearly harden to meet possible claims