An insurer's reputation for fairness and competence may be its most valuable asset. Harper Grey lawyers have protected the reputations of insurers and their insured since the firm was founded in 1907.
Our insurance lawyers work with clients to resolve claims with the best interests of their insureds and organizations in mind.
We serve regional, national and multinational insurers. We represent major self-insured businesses, working with their insurance partners to resolve claims. We also work with professional associations to develop and defend errors and omissions and risk-management programs.
We are conscious of an insurer’s relationship with its insureds. Harper Grey respects your budgets, service requirements and the accountability structures within your organization. Our clients can benefit from value-added services such as in-house education, unbilled advice and departmental structure reviews.
The services we provide include:
- Representation in meetings, negotiations, mediations, arbitrations, hearings and court proceedings. Our lawyers have appeared at every level of court including the Supreme Court of Canada.
- Working with claims executives, managers, examiners, adjusters and other insurance professionals to determine risk and resolution procedures.
- Developing risk management programs.
- Determining legal budgets, litigation plans and reporting structures.
- Institutional clients benefit from designated team leaders and team members at a variety of levels.
- Audits and reviews of all aspects of our client service to insurance companies and institutions for whom we perform large volumes of work.
- Subscriptions to our complimentary monthly Insurance Law Update e-newsletter, which is also published in a longer format on Quicklaw.
Did you know that Harper Grey publishes the Canadian Insurance Law Blog? Stay current with new case law and emerging issues – read more here.
Services
- Bodily injuries.
- Commercial general liability.
- Commercial lines products - construction deficiencies, property loss, business interruption, products liability.
- Complex, multi-party claims.
- Criminal acts.
- Directors and officers liability.
- Environmental contamination.
- Errors and omissions.
- Occupiers liability.
- Personal lines products - property loss, motor vehicle liability, social host liability, defamation.
- Professional liability.
- Reinsurance.
- Subrogated matters such as geographic torts.
- Transportation related claims including aviation and marine cargo and equipment damage.
Typical Situations
- A landslide caused by a winter storm destroys five houses on one block located below a steep embankment. It also destroys a partially built house just above the block.
- A teenager is caught vandalising a commercial property adjacent to his home. The property owner sues his parents for damages.
- A hotel guest slips and falls in a bathtub, sustaining a concussion and serious spinal injuries. The hotel has recently signed a contract with a new cleaning supply company. Other guests have complained about the slippery tubs on a popular hotel rating website, but not directly to hotel management.
Representative Work
- Appearing twice before the Supreme Court of Canada to address the deductibility of collateral benefits paid to tort victims.
- Appearing in the BC Supreme Court in Swagger Construction v. ING Insurance Canada, the leading case regarding construction deficiency claims.
- Organizing a subrogated claim resulting from a power surge that prompted 200 property damage claims from a residential neighbourhood.
- Extracting a client from lengthy and expensive litigation relating to the failure of a key component in a helicopter that crashed.
- Managing all professional liability claims for a provincial organization of home inspectors. We developed the errors and omissions program for this organization. It is now used throughout Canada.
- Handling the majority of occupiers liability claims from one of the largest grocery store chains in the province.
- Defending an insurer in an action against them by an insured who was alleged to have made misrepresentations in the application for insurance and renewal of that insurance. The insured had been sued in California for $250 million and sued the insurer who had denied defence and indemnity to the insured as a result of the misrepresentations.
- Addressing the issue of the vicarious liability of an insurer for the intentional and wrongful acts of its agents.
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