What’s New: In Brief (June 04, 2007)

Markel International has launched an insurance product to cover complementay and alternative medicine malpractice.
The rise in popularity of no-win no-fee arrangements has increased the number of claims against alternative and complimentary practitioners, which has driven up the demand for malpractice insurance, Julian Brown, Markel underwriter, said in a statement.
The new product will provide cover for medical malpractice, public and products liability, dishonesty of employees, libel and slander, breach of confidentiality and intellectual property rights, the Merkel statement says.
It will also include Good Samaritan cover (ie if someone falls ill on a plane or is in an accident and a passing doctor treats them) and sexual harassment defence costs.

Marshs directors and officers (D&O) policy has implemented an order of payment clause that will go to protect the individual D&Os in the first instance, before it provides coverage for the corporation, according to a Marsh publication.
The Enron case in the United States serves as an example of the benefit of this clause, but policies constructed in this way may operate to the detriment of the company itself, Marsh warns.
If the company is looking for the proceeds of the policy to settle its established liability, the insurers can rely on the order of payments clause to refuse payment until the last liability of an individual director has been finalised.
This may be many years after the companys own liability has been established.
An insured organization must balance the potential benefit of prioritising officers interests against the detriment to its own cover when deciding whether to incorporate an order of payments clause.