Read a roundup of activities around the AILA-NZILA branches

New South Wales

Congratulations to all the NSW committees for a great start to the year.

They have been extremely busy arranging events and seminars for members.

AILA NSW began the year with two seminars run in conjunction with other associations. Both were really successful and allowed AILA members to network with members of those associations. They were:

• Attack of the drones with the Aviation Law Association of Australia & New Zealand. It included a live demonstration of a drone.
• Spotlight on the Lloyd’s Market in Australia was conducted in conjunction with the Underwriting Agencies Council. Chaucer’s Mark Lawrence presented. Prof Rob Merkin also provided an update on UK insurance law developments.

Sparke Helmore and Unisearch sponsored a seminar examining experts and expert evidence. Thank you to both firms for their generous sponsorship and assistance.

The final of the Ron Shorter award was well supported, despite wild wind and rain during the evening. See main article.

Thanks to Colin Biggers & Paisley, which sponsored and hosted the evening.

Divya Pahawa, from Meridan Lawyers, Naseer Taseer, from GT Insurance, and Mark Slaven, from McCabes, were required to speak for 15 minutes each on their topics – without notes or other presentation aids.

They had receiving public speaking training from Polaris Coaching, as did 20 other applicants in the competition. Anyone who has presented to an audience without notes or a lectern to stand behind would know how daunting the challenge is. But the trio rose to the challenge.

Congratulations to the finalists and particularly Divya who won the 2015 AILA NSW Ron Shorter Trophy and a trip to the AILA National Conference in Melbourne in October. She will have the opportunity to speak publicly against the Victorian competition winner in a states’ “speak off”.

2015 Twilight Seminar Series

June 10 - You’re on notice - Notification of circumstances
June 24 - Mis-statement and non-disclosure – Law and policy drafting
July 1 - Business interruption insurance and real life
July 22 - An update on ASIC’s regulatory priorities for the Australian insurance industry
August 5 - Good faith and claims handling
August 19 - Current trends in shareholder class actions: issues for D&O insurers

For more information go to www.aila.com.au.

Western Australia

Breakfast seminars continue to be popular in WA but numbers are a little down on 2014.

On May 6, Dr Daniel Sokol presented at a breakfast seminar on: Whether to tell patients a grim truth - one of oldest and thorniest ethical dilemmas in medicine.

Dr Sokol is a practising barrister, specialising in personal injury and clinical negligence, and a medical ethicist. His PhD was in medical ethics and he worked as an academic before qualifying as a lawyer. He has published several books on medical ethics and law and sat on ethics committees for the UK Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defence and the Royal College of Surgeons. He is an award-winning columnist for the British Medical Journal.

Dr Sokol was in Australia at the invitation of Next Health, which kindly afforded him time to present for AILA WA.

May 22 was a master class, co-ordinated by Greg Pynt. The title was Insurance Gangham Style (Reloaded). It followed the very successful, highly regarded 2013 master class. The all-day seminar was presented by the Universities of WA and Southampton and supported by the University of Exeter and AILA WA.

Presenters included Professor James Davey, Samantha Traves, Stefan Sudweeks, Professor Rob Merkin, Fred Hawke, Bettina Mangan, and Chris Rimmer. The opening address was by Justice Ken Martin, from the Supreme Court of WA.

The first social function for 2015 will be a high tea with a special guest speaker on June 5.

Christchurch, New Zealand

NZILA’s Christchurch chapter met on Monday March 16 to hear Duncan Webb, of Lane Neave, present on the wider insurance law and practice lessons from precedent earthquake list cases.

Duncan discussed court findings on the meaning of physical loss and physical damage and the corresponding obligations of insurers and insureds in fixing the methodology and cost of reinstatement.

He then covered the different treatments for land movement and building damage under the Earthquake Commission Act and insurance policies, and the concept of windfall under full replacement policies.

Duncan's presentation generated a good amount of discussion and plenty of questions from the floor. It was a pleasing turnout of 62 people, including a handful of North Island visitors.