Court decision reverses trend on policy notification clauses

Saffron Tofield^* and Peter Driscoll^* look at the extent to which the decision by the Court of Appeal in Sirius International Insurance –v– Friends Provident Life & Pensions Ltd (May 2005) restricts the scope of insurers to reject a claim on the grounds of a breach of the policy notification clause by the insured. They also consider the remedies available to insurers

Court decision reverses trend on policy notification clauses

The notification clause is an important clause in any policy. The wording of the clause varies from policy to policy, requiring notice of a circumstance or a claim in a certain form and within a certain time limit (“immediately”, “as soon as possible” or “within a reasonable time”, for example). It also establishes what an insured has to notify, including the type of circumstance (a circumstance which is ‘likely to give rise to a claim’ or one which ‘may give rise to a claim’, for example).