RAA conference on insurance arbitration

16.03.2016 RAA conference on insurance arbitration

The conference held on the 17th of March addressed the latest issues related to dispute resolution in the insurance and reinsurance sectors. The conference brought together leading professionals in this field in Russia and abroad, which included representatives of law firms, Russian academic institutions as well as societies for consumer rights and insurance expertise.  

During the plenary session, Vladimir Khvalei, Chairman of Board, RAA spoke about the perculiarities of dispute resolution in the insurance and reinsurance sectors, noting the existing need for such disputes to be resolved via arbitration, where professionals can play the key role in carrying out awards. It is the need for arbitration in insurance and reinsurance dispute resolution that was one of the driving factors in the organization of the first ever RAA conference on insurance arbitration.

Yuri Kolesnikov, (PhD, Professor), Managing Partner, Center for Business Development and Support "Opora", member of Russian State House Expert Committee on Insurance moderated the first session, and spoke about the difficulties in the legal sector related to insurance. He spoke about the need to understand the complexity of the "Court - Consumer - Insurance companies" triangle. "Nowadays, insurance companies believe the insurer is insured for particular risks, and these are the only risks deserving a payout. The insurer on the other hand believes that the insurance policy covers all possible risks. Thirdly, we have the courts who are indifferent towards insurance policies, believing that its existence alone justifies any and all forms of compensation." - said Mr. Kolesnikov.  

Daria Zhdan-Pushkina, COO, Association of insurance lawyers; Representative, Redstone Chambers talked about her experience with Russia's re-insurance legal sector, in the second session.

Sergey Dedikov, Senior Partner, Russian Association of Insurance lawyers touched upon the sensitive aspects of the insurance practice, in particular, the criteria for recognition of an event as an insurance case in different types of insurance and grounds for refusing or honouring insurance claims and payouts. He pointed out that the opinion of government courts and insurers often differs in this regard. Sergey Slepets, Head of Legal, “Capital Reinsurance”  talked about the features of legal regulation of reinsurance and synchronising conditions of insurance and reinsurance contracts. Andrey Loboda, Partner, Lodoba, Filimonov and Partners brought the session to a close with an in-depth analysis of the informational obligations in today's marine insurance sector.  

The third session addressed alternative methods of settling insurance disputes and brought together experts within and outside Russia to share their experiences.  Dmitry Lysenko, Senior Associate, Baker & McKenzie spoke about the prospects for the development and implementation of sector specific arbitration in Russia in resolving insurance disputes. Gaëtan Zeyen, President of the arbitration court of Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Russia, Attorney-at-Law at the Brussels Bar talked about insurance arbitration in Belgium and France, while George Lambrou, Partner, Thomas Cooper International shared his experiences with regard to insurance arbitration in the UK. Lilia Klochenko, Board member, RAA; Partner and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Law Firm AKP Consulting described in detail RAA's concept for the development of the RAA Insurance Arbitration regulation. Insurance arbitration regulation.  

Drawing the conference to a close Mr. Khvalei invited all interested specialists to join RAA's working group on insurance arbitration. 


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