High Court Opens Door to COVID Insurance Claims

Australia’s highest court has found against claims by insurance companies that business interruption and loss of profits insurance claims, arising from the Covid crisis, were excluded by standard wording of many policies.

A substantial number of insurance policies contained an exclusion for any claim arising under the Quarantine Act.  This Act was repealed in 2015 and replaced with the Biosecurity Act.  The insurers argued that the reference to the Quarantine Act should extend to the Biosecurity Act.

The High Court has found against the insurers on this point.

MAKE YOUR CLAIM

It is likely your business was affected by COVID, directly or indirectly by lockdowns and other restrictions. If you have business insurance it is likely to include a section containing loss of profits or business interruptions.

To assist all our clients in this area, we are offering a fixed fee service of $890.00 (plus GST) for us to meet with you, take a statement from you, review your insurance policies briefly and give preliminary advice on whether there are any reasonable prospects (or not) of you pursuing such an insurance claim.

If there are reasonable prospects we will seek your further instructions subject to our usual retainer terms. We will then investigate the matter more fully and give you more detailed advice on the steps required and likely costs to proceed.

Please contact us to review your policies and provide a preliminary report to you.  We recommend having the assistance of your insurance broker in reviewing such claims. In any event, we recommend that you:

• contact your insurance broker to see if there is any possibility of making such a claim;
• put together evidence such as profit and loss statements, to support any claims you might make.

We would be happy to help you with this and any other matters of a legal nature.