Risk
27th May, 2016
Risk Perspectives
What are the odds…
“Football match cancelled because fake bomb is accidentally left by training company 20 minutes before kick-off”? It sounds like something that’s only printed on 1st April before 12 noon. Strange sequences of events happen more than you expect, and not many are stranger than those at Old Trafford on 15th May. More than 70,000 fans made the trip to watch Man Utd’s last league game of the season, only to be evacuated due to a bomb scare. It’s the Bournemouth fans who made the five hour trip up north that I feel sorrier for, although no fan may get a bad deal out of it after all…
In fact, litigation lawyers have already been queueing up to back the case that could be worth millions in compensation. The legal test for claims will almost certainly be based upon whether there was “negligence” in not counting out or counting back in fake devices. Moreover, the void will not be left with Manchester United, but the training company who supplied the devices.
Imagine being the boss of that company when the call comes in on Monday morning, with a potential backlog of thousands of claims to oversee – there maybe a few choice words. First of all, we hope that company has adequate insurance, and we will assume this scenario is true.
Initial stress and anger, will likely be followed by concern…” how in the world are we going to deal with all this?” If insured directly (not through a risk manager or broker) the relationship of that company will also be direct with the insurer, and in this scenario there may be a few hours of phone calls, meetings, and some more stress. Clients of DB Wood wouldn’t have this pressure, as our dedicated claims service would kick in to take up all the slack. Dealing with the insurers on your behalf is our bread and butter, and it’s just part of our aim to provide a world-class service.
It’s so true; “you don’t realise you need insurance until you need it”; and in the case of big claims, you don’t realise you want someone to process a claim for you, until you have one. Don’t insure direct to save £100, because we can promise you that having our team there in the event of a claim can save you significantly more in time, and we all know “time is money”.
