Happy National ESIGN Day! Eighteen years ago this week, Congress passed the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, ensuring the legal validity of contracts entered into using electronic signatures and records. National ESIGN Day was established by Senate Resolution 576 and House Concurrent Resolution 290 on June 30, 2010.

A fact of business today is that customers – both consumers and other businesses – and employees expect to transact digitally. To remain competitive, companies find themselves increasing their efforts to digitally transform their businesses.

European Union

In December 2016 we posted on the NSW Law Reform Commission’s recommendation to replace section 6 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 (NSW). Six months later, we can now confirm that section 6 is (finally) dead and herald the new era of the Civil Liability (Third Party Claims Against Insurers) Act 2017 (NSW) (Act). The new Act is now live (from 1 June 2017) and is a welcome clarification of the confusion and ambiguity caused by section 6.

European Union

In a judgment handed down on 17 March 2017 (but which has only recently become publicly available) in Catalyst Managerial Services v Libya Africa Investment Portfolio,1 Mr Justice Teare held that an After The Event (ATE) insurance policy put before the court in purported satisfaction of a security for costs order, was not in a reasonably satisfactory form.

Hong Kong

Welcome to the latest edition of DLA Piper’s monthly newsletter – Pensions Round-Up – in which we provide an overview of developments in pension legislation, case law and regulatory guidance. In this edition we look at key developments from October 2016 including the following. ■ The Pensions Regulator: the publication of reports which look at cases concerning the power to declare scheme amendments void, failures to complete the scheme return, and the potential use of the Regulator’s anti-avoidance powers.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners Summer National Meeting, held on August 24 - 28 in San Diego, produced a number of noteworthy developments related to international, financial, and other regulatory matters. Many of these matters are interconnected on both public policy and technical grounds and involve a mixture of domestic and international political issues.

In Berryman v Zurich Australia Ltd [2016] WASC 196, the Supreme Court of Western Australia held a bankrupt, Berryman, was able to maintain legal action in his own name, claiming TPD insurance benefits from Zurich.

The Bankruptcy Act 1966 (Cth) relevantly provides:

Lenders contemplating potential claims against insurers of insolvent professionals will welcome the fact that the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act 2010 (2010 Act) is to finally come into force from 1 August 2016, having been updated by the Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Regulations 2016.