Insurance and Reinsurance Coverage
and Claims Advocacy

A fair payment, for a fair claim.  Not revolutionary thinking, you might say, but sometimes harder to achieve than it should be, particularly where (as is often the case with complex risks) a policyholder’s insurance claim doesn’t fall neatly into the wording of the policy.

Policyholders often find it difficult to know whether, or how, to challenge an insurer’s decision not to pay a claim, or to pay less than the full amount of a claim.  Policyholders don’t dispute coverage on a regular basis, so they aren’t familiar with the claims process or the sometimes obscure techniques and terminology used by the insurance market when claims fall to be assessed.

This can be a problem of communication, which can lead to avoidable misunderstandings and needless, but messy, legal disputes.

As a policyholder, we know that what you want is a fair payment, for a fair claim.

With decades of experience of coverage disputes worldwide, but particularly in Asia-Pacific, we know that if an insurer can be educated to see things from the policyholder perspective, the chances of a fair payment, for a fair claim, increase markedly.  The key to securing that objective lies in an understanding of what information an insurer needs to make a decision (or change their mind), being able to show an insurer that more than one interpretation of their policy wording is possible, and knowing when and what type of pressure to apply to a situation.

Fundamentally, we believe in dialogue first, not conflict.  Of course, we know when and how to escalate a coverage issue into something more serious, to ensure that your insurer focuses on your interests as a policyholder, not theirs, but waving a big ‘legal’ stick at insurers and threatening litigation doesn’t work very often and is usually counter-productive.  Good communication is key.  We only work for policyholders so we can advocate effectively on your behalf, unrestricted by the commercial relationships that are an unspoken influence on decision-making in the insurance market.  We know how to open a dialogue with your insurer about coverage, we know how to keep that dialogue going, even when the initial answer is ‘no’, and we know who to involve in that dialogue because of the contacts we have in the market.

If our philosophy chimes with yours, and you have a coverage problem anywhere in Asia-Pacific that you need resolving, then get in touch.  We’ll tell you straight away if we think we can’t help you, and point you in the right direction if we think you need something we can’t provide.

Our insurance coverage and claims advocacy practice is led by Steven Dewhurst.

Steven is a commercial insurance and reinsurance lawyer. He began his training in 1991 and practiced insurance law in England & Wales before moving to Asia in 2000. Steven has alternately been based in Hong Kong and Singapore, advising on complex commercial insurance and reinsurance coverage, disputes and regulation. He is an accredited mediator, a Semester Professor at Bond University, the contributing editor of the chapter on insurance in Sweet & Maxwell’s Chitty on Contracts: Hong Kong Specific Contracts, legal adviser to the Labuan International Insurance Association’s Working Group on Self-Regulation, a former member of the Hong Kong Law Society’s Insurance Law and Professional Indemnity Scheme committees, a former director of the Hong Kong Insurers’ Club, a former Vice-Chairman of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association’s Insurance Committee and, whilst in private practice, was listed in Who’s Who Legal, the Expert Guide to the World’s Leading Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers and Chambers Asia-Pacific.