Insurance

Avant Insurance has lost a bid to pause an order that it pay $371,000 in the legal costs of a surgeon facing a class action by breast implant patients of defunct clinic the Cosmetic Institute while the insurer's appeal is pending.

The Commonwealth Bank will plead guilty to criminal charges following an ASIC investigation over misleading representations to customers who purchased add-on consumer credit insurance.

Insurance broker JLT Risk Solutions has opposed an application by a group of NSW councils to add misleading and deceptive conduct allegations to a long-running class action, claiming the changes would force the vacation of a five-week trial due to start in October.

A judge has signed off on a proposal by two law firms to jointly run a consolidated class action against Allianz over add-on car insurance, shooting down the insurer's argument that a beauty contest would promote competitive contingency fee rates.

Insurance giant Lloyd's has rejected what it calls an "incomprehensible" class action pleading by Australian businesses that argue its business interruption policies should have indemnified them for losses stemming from COVID-19 lockdowns.

Allianz Australia and its travel insurance unit AWP Australia have been hit with $1.5 million in penalties in ASIC’s case alleging the insurance companies misled customers while selling travel insurance on Expedia websites.

Avant Insurance has launched an appeal of a Federal Court judgment ordering it to cover the defence costs of a surgeon facing a class action by breast implant patients of defunct clinic the Cosmetic Institute.

Lockdown orders by the Victorian government and an international travel ban in place last year during the first wave of COVID-19 did not trigger a business interruption clause in an IAG policy at the centre of a test case brought by insurers, a judge heard Monday.

Insurance Australia has been hit with a class action by business owners whose claims for business interruption losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have been denied.

Hall & Wilcox has expanded its corporate insurance, commercial and regulatory offering with the appointment of new partner Philip Hopley, formerly of Herbert Smith Freehills.