AILA President's message
Angus Kench

Top students rewarded

Congratulations to four top students from three Australian universities who have received AILA prizes for achieving excellence.

Peter Righetti, a director of NewSouthern Capital, received the Victorian AILA chapter's award for achieving top marks in the liability insurance unit in the Masters of Law program at Melbourne Law School.

In NSW, Chris Hartcher, a graduate at Colin Biggers & Paisley (CBP) Lawyers, in Sydney, was awarded the NSW chapter's prize for his studies in insurance law as part of a Juris Doctor of Law at University of Technology Sydney.

In South Australia, Helen Kremmidiotis and Lydia Rose Hart were joint winners for achieving top marks in advanced contract law at Flinders University.

The annual prizes have now spread to all states. Western Australian and Tasmanian prizes will be awarded before year end and Queensland's inaugural prize will be presented to a Griffith University Law School student early in 2019.

Click here to read more.

Register now for the National Conference

Registrations have opened for the AILA National Conference in Perth, WA.

The conference, themed Evolution & Revolution, is at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre from 31 October to 2 November 2018.

After a welcome reception on 31 October, the event will be officially opened on 1 November by AILA's patron, Federal Court Chief Justice James Allsop, architect of the Federal Court's specialist insurance list.

An array of excellent speakers includes:

• Karl Jones, Head of Catastrophe Analytics, Willis Re International, London
• David North, Claims Manager, Swiss Re
• Paul Evans, from Quinn Emmanuel Urquart & Sullivan, Perth, and IMF Bentham Executive Director Hugh McLernon, who will discuss class actions in Australia
• Clyde & Co Partner John Moran and Marsh Cyber Specialist Kelly Butler on the new data breach reporting scheme • Adelaide University’s Dr Mark Giancaspro, who will consider legal issues for smart contracts
• ASIC Group Senior Manager – Insurance Emma Curtis, who will speak on regulatory responses to insurance technology.

The conference organising committee is still confirming additional high-profile speakers.

Perth's new Optus Stadium is the venue for the conference dinner on Thursday 1 November and the event ends with lunch on Friday, featuring comedy hypnotist Matt Hale.

Click here for more information and to register.

I urge AILA members and others interested in insurance and the law to register now to participate in the awesome program and great opportunities to build your network.

Proposal to expand unfair contract terms

The Federal Government has issued a proposals paper on applying unfair contract terms (UCT) to insurance contracts.

ICA CEO Rob Whelan says the proposal has profound implications for insurance contracts, the scope of cover offered, and insurance pricing.

"If implemented, it would cause insurers to fundamentally review their contracts and reassess their pricing. The model under discussion would change the nature of the industry and the risks insurers are prepared to underwrite," he said.

"This is not consistent with the government's announcement it would apply UCT protections to insurance contracts in line with other sectors of the economy."

Submissions on the proposals paper have closed. It will be interesting to see what eventuates.

ICA argues consumers have sufficient protections through the Insurance Contracts Act, the Corporations Act, federal and state fair trading laws and the general insurance code of practice, but says it will "work with stakeholders on developing outcomes that are considered reasonable to all parties".

Cyber risk dangers exposed

There is no doubt organisations must do more to combat cyber crime.

The Economist Intelligence Unit asked 452 large-company board members, C-suite executives and directors to rate their organisations' cyber resilience in 10 areas, ranging from cyber risk assessment and response strategies to technology and human capital plans.

The study, sponsored by Willis Towers Watson, found all organisations said their cyber-resilience abilities were above average, but there were areas where they were slightly less confident, including:

• applying lessons learned from past incidents
• the ability to build a cyber-savvy workforce
• identifying and filling gaps in cyber talent.

Click here to read more. Click here for the full report.

GI code governance committee report

The general insurance code of practice governance committee (CGC) conducted an investigation into add-on insurance and released its report in June.

The CGC made 22 recommendations aimed at improving how add-on insurance is sold. It believes the code should be extended to cover all add-on insurance sales by external sellers.

It also wants code subscribers to address a range of issues, including oversight of external sellers, education and training, compliance frameworks, service level agreements with authorised representatives, monitoring, feedback, complaints and data collection.

It is compelling reading, particularly in light of revelations at the financial services royal commission. Click here to read the report.

ALRC report on litigation funder licensing

The Australian Law Reform Commission has released a discussion paper as part of its inquiry into class actions and litigation funders.

The paper provides 16 proposals and asks 11 questions focused on introducing regulation for third-party litigation funders and strengthening the Federal Court's role in supervising funded class action proceedings.

Click here to read the discussion paper.

If there's one thing to be said for insurance – it's a dynamic industry and it's great to be part of it.

I look forward to welcoming AILA members to the National Conference in Perth in late October so together we can get our heads around some of these meaty issues.