Conference “Legal Protection Insurance as the Method of Financing Legal Services in Europe” took place in Warsaw on 3 June 2014. It was co-organised by PIU and RIAD – an association of the insurers offering legal protection insurance – International Association of Legal Protection Insurance. The purpose of the conference was to promote legal protection insurance in Poland as a tool enhancing access to legal services.
The list of speakers included:
– Andrzej Zwara, attorney, the President of the Supreme Bar Council who expressed his support to the initiative of organising the conference and his willingness to cooperate in favour of legal protection insurance;
– representatives of RIAD: Antje Fedderke, General Secretary of RIAD; Rainer Tögel, Member of the Management Board of RIAD and the President of DAS, Germany; Simon Warr, Deputy President of the Management Board of RIAD and Underwriting Manager Am Trust Europe, Great Britain; Jan Moerland, Member of the Management Board of RIAD, Head of the Legal Office of DAS, the Netherlands and Mariusz Olszewski, the President of the Management Board DAS, Poland, member of RIAD;
– Roman Kusz, the Supreme Bar Council;
– Zbigniew Pawlak, Vice President of the National Chamber of Legal Advisers.
The representatives of RIAD explained that the scope of legal protection insurance is similar in all states, and any differences in approaches to this product stem from the differences in regulations on providing legal services, such as possibility of providing legal services by in-house lawyers of the insuring company. It was underlined that the promotion of this type of insurance took several dozens of years, therefore, its slow growth in the initial stadium is quite natural.
On the other hand, the representatives of self-governments of legal professions explained during their speeches, why providing the services by the self-government members is so important. They expressed, among other things, their doubts regarding quality of services provided by phone, and pointed out the vast list of exclusions from the insurance scope.
The Conference was hosted by Andrzej Maciążek, the Vice President of the Management Board of PIU, who stressed out in the summary that PIU commenced cooperation with legal professions associations in order to develop the interest of its representatives in providing services within legal protection insurance.
Presentations from the Conference
Mariusz Olszewski, DAS – Legal Protection Insurance in Poland
Simon Warr, AmTrust Law, Legal Protection Insurance – the UK model
Rainer Tögel, DAS – Legal Protection Insurance – The German LPI model
Jan Moerland, DAS – Legal Protection Insurance in the Netherlands
Antje Fedderke RIAD – Overview of Legal Protection Insurance in Europe
