French or foreign insurers (reinsurers), insurance intermediaries, companies, major industrial groups and other organisations, the lawyers at DS Avocats specialising in Liability and Insurance Law accompany and assist you in all the issues you encounter, whether in advisory or litigation matters, in civil and criminal matters.
Whether your activities are in Paris or in the provinces, in France or abroad, one of our 22 offices, spread over 13 countries in Europe, America (North and South), Asia and Africa, will be able to assist you and provide you with the solutions you expect with efficiency and professionalism.
Our Insurance team relies on the recognised skills and know-how of our specialist departments, which enable us to offer you a cross-functional approach to your problems, whatever your activity: transport, health, environment, energy, infrastructure, new technologies, etc.
Insurance contract law
Our team is fully proficient in the rules relating to the operation of insurance contracts and regularly assists its clients, both at the pre-litigation and litigation stages, in disputes between insurers and insured parties relating in particular to :
- Terms and conditions of the guarantee;
- Applicability of exclusion clauses;
- Difficulties relating to the scope of the guarantee;
- Duration of the guarantee and its effects;
- Premiums;
- Early termination of the contract;
- Declaration of risk (under-evaluation of risk, over and under insurance);
- Application of limits and under limits of cover, particularly in the case of serial and industrial claims;
- Insurance fraud.
Claims
The team is involved in the management of all types of claims:
- Transport insurance (road, rail, sea and air);
- Civil Liability Insurance;
- Product liability insurance;
- Damage insurance;
- Industrial risks;
- Medical liability insurance for health professionals and hospitals;
- Air insurance;
- Yachting;
- Insurance against inexcusable fault on the part of the employer;
- Etc.
Our experts assist both in the defence of victims' claims and in the context of recourse by the insured and their subrogated insurers against liable third parties.
The team has also acquired a high level of expertise in management:
- complex cases;
- serial or mass claims (litigation related to asbestos exposure, air accidents, major industrial risks, etc.);
- as well as in cross-border disputes (air transport accidents, industrial claims, etc.).
We assist our clients before all jurisdictions, civil, commercial, administrative and criminal (insurance fraud).
Compliance/regulatory
Assistance to Insurers and Reinsurers
Our team deals with all issues relating to the prudential regime of insurers, in particular those relating to the Solvency II Directive and its implementing texts.
Our expertise also extends to all matters relating to the regulatory obligations of insurers and reinsurers in their dealings with national and international supervisory authorities, in close collaboration with actuaries specialising in regulatory issues in the sector.
We support our clients, insurers and reinsurers, in their contractual relationships:
- assistance and support in drawing up partnership agreements;
- co-design agreements;
- framework and application agreements for distribution and management;
- risk transfer (…).
Our team regularly intervenes, with the support of the dedicated departments, in the context of mergers, acquisitions or change of control operations, but also on all tax and RGPD issues relating to insurance activities.
Assistance to insurance intermediaries
Our team works alongside insurance intermediaries:
- in the drafting of policies and contractual clauses;
- in drawing up and validating distribution schemes, partnership and brokerage agreements, in connection with the obligations of advice and information;
- in setting up distribution schemes for insurance products and in developing new offers (new environmental risks ….);
- in the design and implementation of the compliance function and the performance of audits;
- on all regulatory issues, in particular those relating to the implementation of the IMD;
- representation in litigation resulting from unfair and/or anti-competitive practices.
Complementary health and life insurance
We have a renowned complementary social insurance practice. We help our clients with the following:
- Implementing, amending or abolishing complementary retirement and life insurance regimes and employee savings plans.
- Drafting collective agreements, agreements ratified by referendum, documents implementing an employer’s unilateral decision, etc.
