NSW Child Abuse Bill opens door to revisit settled claims

Yesterday, the Civil Liability Amendment (Child Abuse) Bill 2021 was introduced in NSW. The Bill has two objectives: to enable courts to set aside certain agreements that settled claims for child abuse where it is just and reasonable to do so, and to ensure that Part 2A of the Act does not restrict awards of […]

International Women’s Day 2021

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, we joined with our Legalign Global partner firms, Alexander Holburn, BLD Bach Langheid Dallmayr, DAC Beachcroft, and Wilson Elser, to create a series of daily videos highlighting leading women across our network and their achievements. You may have seen the videos on LinkedIn which includes our Legalign firm leaders introducing the […]

Focus on privacy – keeping personal information up-to-date

A recent case note from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner highlights how failures to keep personal information up-to-date, and to act on requests to update information, can lead to privacy exposures. In this short article, W+K’s Mark Anderson, Joseph Fitzgerald and Johnson Zhuang look at the issues raised and ways to manage similar risks. […]

NZ Insurance Market Trends Update

Welcome to Wotton Kearney’s NZ Insurance Market Trends Update, our biannual snapshot of legal trends and developments impacting claims managers, underwriters, brokers and corporates operating in the New Zealand market. In this edition, we look at the impact of recent matters in the areas of D&O claims, representative actions and EPL. We provide updates on […]

Aged care reform heralds heightened risk for insurers

The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is due to publish its final report on 26 February 2021. Its work, combined with the devastating impact of COVID-19, make it clear that significant change is on the way for the aged care sector. In this article, Chris Spain along with Cain Jackson and Charles […]

2021 Insurance Predictions Report

Wotton Kearney is pleased to provide our 2021 Insurance Predictions Report, looking at the major trends and issues we expect will remain in the spotlight for the insurance industry in our region this year. It’s no surprise that this report addresses some of the horizon issues that we expect to face in the wake of […]

High Court finds general advice can get personal

On 3 February 2021, the High Court unanimously dismissed Westpac’s appeal in Westpac Securities Administration Ltd v ASIC [2021] HCA 3. It held that Westpac’s call centre operators, in making outbound calls to existing superannuation members, provided personal advice to retail clients in breach of AFSL conditions. This is the first High Court pronouncement on […]

Insurance position helps halt PIPA claim

In a recent application heard before the Supreme Court of Queensland, a personal injuries claimant failed in his attempt to join a respondent to his PIPA pre-court claim outside of the legislative timeframe. The prospective respondent’s insurance position was highly relevant to the court’s dismissal of the application. In this case alert, Scott Macoun and […]

The Hayne Royal Commission’s impact on insurers in 2021

A year after the Royal Commission report was submitted, claims handling has emerged in its wake as one of the biggest issues for the insurance industry. The Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Act 2020 (the Act) was given assent on 17 December 2020. Schedule 4 of the Act which has the effect of […]