Hundreds Attend Good Faith Group Action In Christchurch

Around 400 people packed into the Transitional Cathedral in ChCh on Friday night to hear about the possibility of a group action against insurers.

Former Cantabrian now Auckland based litigation lawyer Kalev Crossland and a current director of a litigation funding company, Bruce Sheppard told the gathered audience that they were confident there was a case for the insurance companies to answer and be working to gather more information to inform any decision.

“We don’t know everything that has been going on post-quake,” says Crossland who returned to Christchurch to talk to weary insurance claimants after a meeting in Mt Pleasant several weeks ago. “It was clear from that meeting people were being delayed in resolving their claims, having to pay for expert opinion for which they should be reimbursed, being offered low amounts to settle or repair (low balling) and a number of other issues which all, we believe, is a breach of utmost good faith – a key tenant of insurance law.”

Crossland and Sheppard say they were particularly taken aback by the number of people in the room who have not had their claims settled yet.

“We asked for a show of hands around to indicate who had had repairs completed unsatisfactorily, who had been cashed out unsatisfactorily and who was still stuck – 90% of the audience put their hands up then. After four years it is unconscionable that people are still waiting for a satisfactory resolution.”

Kalev Crossland has met with a number of people since the Friday night meeting and says more information has come to hand which he says will make a significant difference in the due diligence being carried out to assess whether there is case for Insurance Companies to answer related to utmost good faith.

“All I can say is we have plenty of work to do around reviewing the information we have been given by claimants, find correct answers to questions raised at the meeting on Friday night and I know Bruce will be reporting back to LPF”, says Kalev Crossland.

LPF is New Zealands largest litigation funder however Bruce Sheppard attended the Christchruch meeting as an individual not a representative of LPF but he will be speaking to his colleagues at the company in the coming week.

“LPF does not fund litigation that they are not more than confident they can win,” he says. “We have a sense of justice and want to right wrongs but we are also a business and unless we are prudent in our decision making around what we fund and what we don’t, we won’t be around long enough to right as many wrongs as we can,” says Sheppard.

Sheppard told the meeting on Friday in Christchurch that LPF has never lost a case, of the 20 or so it has taken and it is not afraid to take on large corporates and even the government.

Another meeting is being considered sometime next month as a number of attended said they knew many others who would be interested in considering joining a group action  but could not come to the Friday meeting.

Kalev Crossland adds that he is especially interested in speaking with claimants who have still not settled their claims including those with Southern Response.

There will be another meeting in Christchurch within the next 3-4 weeks.