Subrogation in insurance and reinsurance

Produced in partnership with Eleanor Ruiz of Reed Smith and Mark Pring of Reed Smith

Practice notes

Subrogation in insurance and reinsurance

Produced in partnership with Eleanor Ruiz of Reed Smith and Mark Pring of Reed Smith

Practice notes

What is the right of subrogation?

In the context of insurance and Reinsurance, the right of subrogation entitles an insurer or reinsurer, having indemnified the (re)insured, to ‘step into its shoes’ to bring an action in the (re)insured’s name. For the Purpose of this Practice Note, ‘insurer’ should be taken to mean ‘(re)insurer’ and ‘insured’ should be taken to mean ‘(re)insured’.

The insurer can then exercise any of the insured’s rights or remedies against Third parties in respect of the insured event. Once the insured has been indemnified by the insurer, the scope of the insurer’s rights and remedies is coextensive with the insured’s rights and remedies against third parties in respect of the relevant loss. This includes any right in contract (fulfilled or unfulfilled), tort, or any other right, be it legal or equitable.

Once the right of subrogation arises, the insurer may be subrogated to both the rights of the insured and any benefits the court may award to the insured, including costs and judgment debts.

The

Eleanor Ruiz

Associate, Reed Smith

Year of Qualified: England & Wales - 2014 and Hong Kong - 2017

Eleanor specializes in complex commercial disputes, insurance recovery and insolvency-related disputes, including professional negligence claims. She represents a broad range of clients, including liquidators, investment and retail banks, corporations, insurance companies and brokers.

Eleanor trained and qualified at Reed Smith in London in the Global Commercial Disputes Group, handling general commercial disputes and insurance recovery matters.

In 2016 she moved to Hong Kong, where she joined a specialist investigative dispute resolution practice and qualified as a solicitor of the High Court of Hong Kong. There she worked on insolvencies being litigated in the Hong Kong courts, including professional negligence claims involving directors, auditors and other professional service providers.

Eleanor returned to Reed Smith in London in 2019, re-joining the Global Commercial Disputes Group.

Eleanor was seconded to one of the UK's largest retail banks for six months, advising the business in respect of various disputes and advising on insurance coverage for the settlement of PPI claims.

Eleanor is actively involved in pro bono. She participates in legal advice clinics and is part of a large case team working alongside Amicus, helping provide representation for those facing the death penalty in the U.S.

Mark Pring

Reed Smith

Mark is a London-based partner in Reed Smith's Insurance Recovery Group, a market-leading team of coverage experts operating internationally who are committed to providing support only to insured policyholders. Mark has had extensive experience, for nearly 30 years, in handling high-value, multi-jurisdictional insurance and other commercial disputes (including cross-border litigation and arbitration proceedings). In the insurance context, that experience has covered a range of non-marine and marine risks - including professional indemnity, financial institutions, directors' and officers' liability, property, energy and construction risks. Mark's practice also increasingly involves "risk management" work, including advising on corporate governance matters, reviewing anti-corruption policies and procedures and conducting reviews of insurance arrangements. Having previously lived and worked in the region, Mark continues to work closely with clients from, and investors into, Middle East jurisdictions. He has also developed a strong reputation for assisting policyholder clients based in a number of offshore jurisdictions (in particular, Jersey and Guernsey).

Mark is regularly commended by independent legal directories: he "is brilliant. He never shies away from in-depth and complicated discussions but also has a very good and accessible way of explaining things. He is lovely to work with and gets on very well with clients." "He is an insurance expert who gets to the heart of things." - Chambers & Partners UK, 2022.

Mark was granted Higher Rights of Audience (Civil Proceedings) in November 2016.

Mark was identified as a "Best Client Partner 2014" in a Legal Week survey of FTSE 100 general counsel.

Finally, Mark is the coordinating partner for a number of Reed Smith’s pro bono initiatives focusing on access to justice and immigration law rights.

Jurisdiction(s):

United Kingdom

Key definition:

Reinsurance definition

What does Reinsurance mean?

An insurance policy covering an insurer’s exposure to a policy or class of policies that it has insured. Proportional reinsurance is written on an agreed percentage of risk, as opposed to non-proportional or excess of loss insurance, which responds once the limit of the underlying layers have been eroded.

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