|
Description
Please join us for a hot breakfast seminar with Mark Steele, barrister, who will consider recent cases from Queensland and other jurisdictions which consider the meaning of “professional” in the context of policies of insurance and whether these policies will respond to alleged breaches of professional duties.
Insurance policies which indemnify a person for breach of “professional duty” are well-known. Often those policies relate to occupations such as accountancy, law or architecture. A question which has often faced the courts is whether a particular breach is of a “professional” duty, rather than a non-professional duty. The Queensland Court of Appeal in FAI General Insurance Co Ltd v Gold Coast City Council [1995] 2 QD R 341 identified the relevant enquiry as whether the particular task was one “pertaining or appropriate to a profession” or where the person was “engaged in one of the learned professions”.
This seminar considers what that distinction means in practice. It also examines whether the recent trend of authority, particularly in other states, supports a view that such policies can cover “professional” activities of businesses or trades which would otherwise not be considered a “learned profession”.
Mark was first called to the Bar in 2005 has a wide-ranging commercial practice in both state and federal courts and tribunals, in the areas of insurance, building and construction, property and contractual disputes and administrative law. He is therefore is well placed to provide us with insight to understanding:
- The test likely to be applied by the courts in determining whether an insured may have breached their 'professional duty';
- The difference between a professional duty and non-professional duty and the indicia for identifying these duties;
- When a Professional Indemnity Policy of Insurance might respond to claims that do not fall into one of the traditional 'learned professions'.
Mark is also a joint winner of the Australian Lawyers' Alliance Social Justice Award presented in February 2015.
This seminar is critical for all lawyers, claims officers, brokers and insurance staff working in the professional indemnity sphere.
|
