http://www.rerisk.net Risk, Re-/Insurance and Future Thinking Mon, 22 Dec 2008 21:24:56 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today was my last day with the old firm. I learned a lot while I was there, but an opportunity came up that was too good to let go. As from 5 January 2009, I shall be with the London office of Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP. I ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/22/moving-on/ Continental Airlines flight 1404 was taking off from Denver, headed to Houston, when it veered off the runway and crashed. 38 people were injured, none seriously. One of the passengers posted only-just-after-event messages (tweets) on Twitter about his experiences - a fine example of Web 2.0 almost operating on the ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/21/for-all-you-aviation-underwriters-out-there/ A pub crawl whereby a new person is added at each location and has to buy a round. Each new person is promised that they will get free drinks at all the future bars if they buy this round. Obviously, last person to join the ponzi crawl gets screwed. "Made-up Madoff ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/19/a-ponzi-crawl/ The FT had an interesting piece about flooding on 16 December. The surprising thing to me was that about 40-60 per cent of flood-related claims are from damage to properties in areas away from main rivers and involve surface flooding and questions of drainage. Insurers are hampered in analysing this area ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/19/flood-risks-surface-flooding-drainage/ AON are warning that fraud is on the rise and that insurance is going to face increasing claims from environmental threats, terrorism and product recalls. They also think nano-tech is going to bite insurers. I'd agree with fraud. Longer term, I think the environment is going to be an issue -- ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/17/fraud-rising-but-what-else/ Insurers should be wary of reliance on an apparently iron-clad warranty. Context is critical, and the courts will look beyond the mere words to discover the true intentions of the parties. In Pratt -v- Aigaion Insurance Company [2008] EWCA Civ 1314, the Court of Appeal held that insurers were not ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/17/beware-the-literal/ Apologies in advance for the painful obviousity factor (POF) of this (probably about 87 on the POF/Richter scale), but it was new to me even though I've used MS Word for aeons. I'm working on a couple of docs that have got to about the zillionth revision stage now, and wanted ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/17/revisions-in-word/ From the WSJ via Clusterstock, it seems that even investors who cashed out of Madoff's schemes ahead of time may have to divvy up. [B]ecause Madoff is thought to have run a Ponzi scheme, investors could get money back from other Madoff investors who already took money out," said Brad Alford, ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/15/madoff-investors-may-have-to-repay-cash/ An unusual case in Italy rested on an allegation of double trouble: identical twin sisters were prosecuted for a long-running scam in which one allegedly filled in for the other at work. Gabriela Odisio, a lawyer and part-time judge from Magenta, allegedly used her sister Patrizia to impersonate her when ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/12/the-chargeable-hour-italian-style/ Last year, Jim Beresford was the top earning solicitor in the UK. Now, he and fellow Beresfords partner Doug Smith have been struck off for dishonesty in dealing with miners' compensation claims. >The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal ruled that they entered into a "sham" arrangement with the UDM, failed to act in ... http://www.rerisk.net/2008/12/11/beresfords-solicitors-struck-off-for-dishonesty/