Insurance law is one of our main practice areas.
As leading practitioners in the areas of marine insurance and other specialty insurance,
we provide top quality information and professional service to our clients.
We were appointed as the Korean chapter of the International Insurance Law Association (AIDA).
C. J. Kim served as the fifth President of the Korea Insurance Law Association
from April 2015 to April 2017.
CHOI & KIM has experience on almost every kind of disputes relating to the coverage under the marine hull policy. CHOI & KIM has handled cases involving such issues as coverage of accidents with unknown causes, breach of warranty, misrepresentation and insurance fraud by intentional foundering of a ship, etc.
CHOI & KIM has been involved in a landmark court ruling on the issue of whether the owner of a sunken vessel by a collision is entitled to bring a direct action against the hull underwriter of the vessel that caused the sinking under RDC in a hull policy governed by English law. The Korean court ruled affirmatively on that issue, which is contrary to the position of English courts.
The precise interpretation of the warehouse to warehouse clause in a marine cargo policy is crucial in deciding the coverage of damage to a cargo during the carriage. CHOI & KIM has handled cases involving issues such as the coverage of a missing cargo in a container found empty at the discharge port with the seals intact, and the coverage of a loss of cargo that was taken out wrongfully at the discharge port while the return process was underway.
CHOI & KIM has experience of representing an insurer in its dispute with a loan provider (bank) in the total amount exceeding US$200 million involving the issue of credit insurance. The major issues on this case are related to the burden of proof on the occurrence of the accident, and exemption based on moral hazard of the banks, etc.
CHOI & KIM has expertise on BBB insurance. The issues include the nature of BBB policy (liability insurance vs. property insurance), fidelity clause, joint custody, exemption due to the delay of notice, compensation for loss of future earning or indirect damages, application of salvage & recovery and claims cooperation cause, etc. The Korean Supreme Court has held that BBB policy does not fall under the category of liability insurance and does not cover the loss suffered by the insured (a security company) due to the compensation to its customer who suffered damage owing to the market manipulation of the insured's employee.
CHOI & KIM has extensive experience on litigation arising from professional liability insurance, which by its very nature requires higher quality legal work, including providing counseling to determine the liability of professionals such as lawyers, medical doctors, tax attorneys, CPAs and fund managers.
CHOI & KIM has participated in litigation and provided advice with regard to the matters of interpretation of CGL policies, which is considered as one of the most complex insurance policies with little Korean court precedents. The issues include the scope of the territory clause related to gradual occurrence, concept of occurrence, timing of occurrence, numbers of occurrence, and coverage of loss due to recall, etc.
The number of disputes between a reinsurer and direct insurer is rapidly increasing in Korea possibly due to the relatively short history of the new kind of insurance and the unique business environment in Korea. CHOI & KIM is providing quality advice based on our accumulated experience on the reinsurance matter. The major disputed issues are the governing law in the reinsurance contract, the right to direct claim against the reinsurer, the breach of duty to disclose, follow the fortune rule and the claims cooperation clause and indemnity claim, etc.
