17 July 2007
The Financial Ombudsman Service welcomes the Law Commission's consultation - launched today - on updating insurance contract-law. The consultation paper [400-page document opens in PDF format] proposes bringing insurance law more in line with both the Financial Services Authority's rules and the Financial Ombudsman Service's approach to settling individual insurance-related disputes.
To inform its work in this area, Law Commission researchers studied files relating to more than 200 insurance disputes that were resolved by a formal decision by an ombudsman.
Walter Merricks, chief ombudsman, said today:
Reform of insurance contract-law is long overdue. So we warmly welcome the Law Commission's decision to consult publicly on this issue.
We are also pleased that, having carried out a detailed review of our work settling insurance disputes, the Law Commission considers that the approach taken by the ombudsman is an appropriate way forward for the law to be modernised.
