Specialty insurer, Mosaic Insurance has added litigation liability coverage to its professional lines offering, appointing experienced litigation solicitor, Sarah Bowden to run the new book.
The coverage will offer financial protection to policy-holders against the risk of adverse legal costs when pursuing litigation or arbitration. Bowden leads the product, also known as “After the Event” (ATE) insurance.
Mosaic confirmed that the coverage facilitates the pursuit of litigation, or arbitration by protecting claimants against the risk of having to pay opponents’ legal costs if their claims are unsuccessful.
The coverage will benefit clients across small businesses to multinational corporations and litigation funders.
“We’re delighted to welcome Sarah to Mosaic and know her background in this sector aligns well with Mosaic’s appetite for complex specialty business requiring deep expertise. This class has high technical barriers to entry and strong underlying demand, so it provides the opportunity for us to demonstrate value to clients, brokers, and our syndicated trade-capital partners,” said Anna Jay, Head of Professional Liability for Mosaic.
Bowden previously practised as a litigator for 17 years, latterly at Mills & Reeve, London.
Throughout her career, she has specialized in complex and high-value litigation disputes, defending claims against solicitors, actuaries, accountants, pension trustees, stockbrokers, IT consultants, construction professionals, medical practitioners, and contract research organisations.
Moreover, the commercial ATE market has witnessed tremendous growth within recent years, however it is still considered to be a nascent line of business. Typical coverage includes breach-of-contract claims, insolvency litigation, group actions/class claims, and competition claims.
“It’s normal to experience a rise in litigation following economic turmoil, and this is inevitable in the wake of the significant disruption we have experienced over the last few years,” said Bowden.
She continued: “We also know that, unfortunately, insolvencies and liquidations are on the rise, affecting industries across the board. We expect this to fuel increased demand for litigation liability insurance, as liquidators look to recover assets while minimising their exposure to the risk of adverse costs.
“Other themes we can expect to see over the longer term are an increase in crypto-related litigation and concerns over ESG issues. Since individuals were able to exploit changes in working practices and procedures at the height of the pandemic, we may also see an increase in civil fraud claims.”
