News

Coris News- July 2009

CORIS NEWS

July 2009

Welcome to July's new look edition of Coris news.

Should you wish for any particular subject to be covered in Coris News please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

France bids adieu to old car IDs

For decades French drivers have proudly displayed their regional loyalties, but the old system is now being replaced by a UK-style number plate-for-life. The new plate will stay with the car, regardless of whether the owner sells it or moves to another region.

The two-digit number of the French department - or region - is reduced to a small strip on the right-hand side. The French news agency AFP describes it as "adieu to '111 AAA 75' and welcome 'AA - 111 - AA'."

The new system - which will also apply to lorries - is aimed at combating registration fraud and making stolen vehicles easier to trace. Some 130,000 stolen cars were sold in France in 2008, French media report.

A group of French politicians waged a campaign against the change, defending the 59-year-old registration system under the slogan "never without my department". In a concession to them French Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie decided that the departmental number would still appear on the new number plates, though reduced in size, along with the departmental emblem.

But now drivers can decide which department they want displayed on the car's plate. So a Corsican living in Paris can for example choose the Corsican number and emblem - which is a black Moorish head sporting a white headband.

Under the new system, the dealer will issue the new car registration, instead of the local authority, eliminating the stocks of old blank grey registration cards, which were a security risk.
Source: BBC News 16.04.09

Trier X, European Traffic Law Days 2009

The next Institute for European Traffic Law
(IETL) Congress will take place on 15/16 October
2009 in Luxembourg.

Speakers from key authorities in the field of European Traffic law, including Michael Zurbrugg, will include the topics- socio professional rehabilitation of victims of road traffic accidents around Europe, ROME II and a survey of the French compensation system.

The Coris Group will be hosting a champagne evening at Le Royal hotel on the eve of the conference.

More details of this event will follow in the
next edition of Coris news.

Coris UK is now firmly established in its new office. Why not come and visit us and see it for yourselves!

German and French top claims

Germany and France are the most expensive places in Europe for a motorway accident, AVIVA claims. The average bill for a fault accident in Germany is £2940, more than 50% higher than the average bill for a crash anywhere else in Europe (£1918). The average personal injury claim in France is £9510.

Top 5 most expensive for third party damage
- Germany -£2940
- Austria and Switzerland -£2265
- Belgium- £1617
- France -£1545
- Spain- £1387

Top 5 most expensive for personal injury
- France £9510
- Germany- £9121
- Italy- £4045
- Holland - £3571
- Belgium £1959

Nigel Batram, AVIVA's UK insurance motor underwriting manager, said 'An estimated two million British tourists take to their cars for driving trips to neighbouring European Union countries each year. We advise drivers in Germany to be extra careful, as about two thirds of the Autobahn network still has no speed limit.
Source: The Insurance Times (11.06.2009)

Recession 'fuels insurance fraud'

Some 107,000 claims worth a total of £730m were found to be false last year, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). The value is up 30% on the previous year, and the figure has risen in each of the past four years. The ABI said fraud was "more of a temptation" during a recession.
While detection of fraud has risen, the group also suspected that the actual amount of fraudulent claims for motor and household insurance had also increased. False motor insurance claims were the highest by value, at £360m. One of these cases involved an owner who reported his car stolen from a car park. Later, he admitted he had pushed the car over the cliff and planned to use the insurance payout to pay off his debts, the ABI said.
"Fraud thrives in a recession, so insurers are intensifying their crackdown on insurance cheats," said Nick Starling, the ABI's director of insurance. "Fraud adds an extra £40 a year to the average premium, which is why the harder we make it for the cheats, the more competitive premiums will be for honest customers."
Detected fraud stood at £260m when the ABI first collected figures in 2004, rising to £410m the following year, up to £470m in 2006 and then rising again to £560m in 2007.
Sue Cowes, a fraud investigator for Norwich Union, said the majority of insurance claims were still genuine. She said factors she looked out included unusual remarks, whether a customer had made a series of claims, and whether a policy had just been taken out. "Unfortunately people are exaggerating some types of claims," she said.
Source: BBC News. 16.04.09

New Minimum Limits of Insurance Cover and claims notification responses in Greece

The changes are as follows:

A. New Minimum Limits of Insurance limits

1. Effective from 1st June 2009 the minimum insurance coverage is:
- €500,000 for bodily injuries per person
- €500,000 for material damage claims, per accident

2. From 1st January 2011 the minimum insurance coverage will increase to:
- €750,000 for bodily injuries per person
- €750,000 for material damage claims, per accident

3. From 1st June 2012 the minimum insurance coverage will increase to:
- €1,000,000 for bodily injuries per person
- €1,000,000 for material damage claims, per accident

B. New Legal claims notification response times and penalties

The new Law requires that insurance companies must respond with a decision to any Third Party claim within 3 calendar months. Failure to do so will result in punitive interest being added to the claim from the expiry of this period. The interest is initially set at a rate of 10% per annum. This measure took effect from March 2009. This highlights the discrepancies in the minimum limits of cover around Europe despite the general aim of harmonisation.

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