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Where an insurer has conduct of the proceedings
The CPR permit an insurer or the Motor Insurers' Bureau to sign a statement of truth
on behalf of a party where either of them "has a financial interest in the result of
proceeding brought wholly or partially by or against that party."
Provision is also
made to deal with cases involving several insurers and several insured, permitting the
statement of truth to be signed by "a senior person responsible for the case at a lead
insurer" while also permitting the court to require the statement of truth also to be
signed by one or more of the parties.
The Working Party's view is that similar rules
should be adopted in Hong Kong.
In a response received from the HKFI (enclosing comments submitted by one Hong
Kong insurer), attention was drawn to certain practical problems met in practice in the
UK :-
"By the time pleadings such as the Defence were required it was often difficult to re-establish
contact with the policyholder/driver and other eyewitnesses. The policyholder who had been
indemnified by this time often had little interest in defending the claim made against him and
little motivation to sign Court documents. When the statement of truth became a possible
source of accusations of contempt of court the policyholder/driver and witnesses' motivation
to assist reduced even further."
That insurer pointed out (and the Working Party agrees) that the answer to this type of
problem probably lies in steps to be taken by the insurer before indemnifying the
insured. Thus, agreement might be secured that the insured's incident report form is
submitted on the basis that the facts there stated may be used to draw up pleadings on
his behalf, that he believes those facts to be true and that he authorizes the insurer to
sign a statement of truth relating to such facts, and so forth, thereby enabling the
insurer or the legal representative appointed to act on the insured's behalf to meet the
requirements of 22PD3.8. If these recommendations proceed to the drafting stage,
representatives of the insurance industry in Hong Kong should be consulted in this
context.
Notes
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