This week's edition of Insurance & Reinsurance weekly highlights includes: UK marine insurer investigating Baltimore bridge crash; four years on, coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown cover claims near endgame; Supreme Court unanimously dismisses appeal against decision to assess damages for PSLA concurrently for whiplash and non-whiplash injuries; ship owners win US$37m naval detention insurance dispute; AI misuse will drive cyber insurance demand, actuary says; health and safety top risk for directors, global survey says; law firm closures hit lowest since 2019 as premiums fall; insurance tech firm can't get policy tracker patent in UK; UK insurance tax bill rises to £8.1bn amid soaring premiums; Insurance Europe warn regulators of gaps in greenwashing rules; the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) publishes findings of a multi-firm review into insurers' valuation of vehicles; cases & decisions; key dates for your diary; and other news highlights reported over the past week.

Private Client analysis: District Judge Chloë Phillips has given judgment in Coady v Coady PT-2023-BHM-000025 (Business & Property Courts in Birmingham (Probate)), determining as a preliminary issue whether a coronavirus (COVID-19) era ‘garden signing’ satisfied section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 (WA 1837). The court held that it did not, with the result that the Will of 25 April 2020 was invalid. Written by Charlotte John of Gatehouse Chambers.

HM Treasury has launched a voluntary repayment scheme, effective from 12 September 2025 until December 2025, allowing individuals and businesses to return funds received under coronavirus (COVID-19) schemes—including loans, grants, social security, and tax benefits—without any questions asked. This initiative is part of a wider effort to recover over £10bn lost due to pandemic-related fraud, flawed contracts and mismanagement, with £1.54bn already recovered.

MLex: Ryanair's CEO has hailed yesterday's deal on a framework for Booking to sell its flights as a victory for consumers and for the Irish low-cost airline. He also defended the Irish carrier's lawsuits against EU approvals for coronavirus (COVID-19)-era bailouts for Deutsche Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and others. 'If we don't fight that fight, no one else will', Michael O'Leary said.

The Insolvency Service has published its monthly insolvency statistics for January 2024 on company and individual insolvencies. The data shows that 1,769 company insolvencies were registered, 5% higher than in January 2023 and also higher than when government support measures were in place in response to coronavirus (COVID-19). For individuals, the total number of insolvencies in January 2024 was 8,089 which was 4% higher than in January 2023.

The Insolvency Service has reported on the disqualification of 831 company directors in 2023-24 for the coronavirus (COVID-19) support scheme abuse (459 in 2022-23 and 140 in 2021-22). The average disqualification length for this period is almost ten years. Among the disqualified company directors were Richard Ward, Darrel North and Sabine Zogota, who used the bounce back loan personally instead of for their respective companies.

It has become increasingly common in international arbitration for some aspects of the procedure to be conducted remotely, with some or all participants attending by video or telephone. Prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, parties and arbitrators would often agree to conduct some aspects of a case remotely for a variety of reasons, including convenience, cost savings or other efficiencies, or out of necessity (when, for example, a witness was unable to attend a hearing in person). Remote hearings by telephone or video-conference also are used in emergency arbitrator proceedings and in cases proceeding under expedited procedures rules. During the pandemic, many arbitrations proceeded with fully remote hearings, where most or all participants are located physically in different locations. This Practice Note is intended to provide guidance on the conduct of remote hearings in international arbitration. It describes: • remote hearing options • potential benefits of remote hearings, as well as potential concerns • legal issues that may arise in connection with remote hearings, and • practical issues to be addressed

The Vice-President of the Court of Protection, Mr Justice Hayden, has issued guidance for judges and practitioners offering practical solutions to some of the issues being raised in connection with coronavirus (COVID-19), including this question. See Court of Protection: Guidance COVID-19. In this guidance, Mr Justice Hayden notes that Practice Direction 4A: Hearings makes it clear that the Court of Protection is able to direct the scope and ambit of the hearing. This has already led to earlier guidance making specific provision for telephone hearings and, in the present circumstances, the broad approach is that hearings of less than

The practice of electronic signing of documents has risen in popularity in recent times, and has accelerated further as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This has come to be known as the 'Mercury Signing Approach', which was initially proposed by the Law Society in 2009 in a Practice Note: Execution of documents by virtual means (updated in May 2020). In its 2019 report, Electronic Execution of Documents (Law Com No 386), the Law Commission endorsed the Mercury approach. This involves a scanned manuscript signature being added to the final version of the deed, and is of use where all parties to the transaction completed by deed are not

Definitions (General) Competent Authority • any authority having jurisdiction in relation to the Property, its occupation or use; Restricted Period • any period [exceeding [number] [continuous] weeks] during the Term in which a Pandemic Restriction applies; Pandemic Restriction • any Legislation, or any requirement of, or guidance

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HM Courts & Tribunals Service has launched a new £1m marketing campaign to recruit 4,000 magistrates to help tackle the backlog of criminal cases caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to the MoJ, this campaign marks the largest recruitment effort in the 650-year history of the magistracy. Magistrates are expected to dedicate a minimum of 13 days a year service on a voluntary basis.

The Insolvency Service has published its monthly insolvency statistics for June 2024 on company and individual insolvencies. The data shows that 2,361 company insolvencies were registered, 17% higher than in June 2023 and much higher than when government support measures were in place in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) as well as pre-pandemic levels. For individuals, the total number of insolvencies in June 2024 was 10,395, 33% higher than in June 2023.