The Insurance Council of Australia and the Australian Financial Complaints Authority have filed court proceedings that will test whether certain infectious disease exclusions in business interruption cover apply to coronavirus-related claims.
The majority shareholder in insurance broker Coverforce has won its bid to use documents from an existing lawsuit over the company’s $25 million acquisition of Suncorp unit Resilium in new proceedings it intends to bring.
Insurance policies that may be worth up to $46 million and have derailed settlement approval in two class actions against sandalwood producer Quintis were “cobbled together” and contained errors and omissions, a court has heard.
Health booking company HealthEngine has urged the court to accept a $2.9 million penalty for deleting and altering unfavourable reviews, telling a judge that it did not know the behaviour was against the law.
The prefab concrete specialist behind Sydney’s Opal Tower, which has been targeted in a class action over the ill-fated building, has told a court that a dispute with its insurer should be resolved promptly so that it can defend itself in the proceedings.
Shine Lawyers is investigating two new class actions against Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Westpac’s BT Funds Management over allegedly excessive insurance premiums, a week after filing a similar case against AMP’s life insurance arm.
AMP Life has been hit with a class action alleging its financial representatives pushed inflated insurance policies onto 100,000 customers while knowing that better policies could be found through other providers.
Insurance giant Allianz is facing a class action over allegedly “poor value” or worthless car and motorcycle insurance products.
Former Liberal leader John Hewson has filed a defamation suit against Nine, claiming a report by A Current Affair about his insurance firm was gratuitous and “seriously dishonest”.
The claim that funded class actions are the main factor impacting the D&O premium increases and stultifying business in Australia is a specious argument. The reality is that the primary reason for the increase in the cost of D&O liability insurance is the extent of corporate wrongdoing, says Omni Bridgeway’s Andrew Saker.