The Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) has underscored its commitment to promoting the highest levels of competence and legal knowledge among its membership with the launch of The FOIL Standard, a dedicated set of competence statements for defendant insurance lawyers.
The FOIL Standard, which sits alongside the Solicitors Regulation Authority's baseline competence statement required of all solicitors, provides a benchmark for insurance lawyers and their insurer clients of competence in specialist areas of insurance law.
Laurence Besemer, CEO of FOIL, commented: "At a time of significant change in the approach of the legal sector to continuing professional development, FOIL felt it was important for the insurance sector to have some clearly defined standards, demonstrating competence with regard to legal issues, insurance law and commercial knowledge.
"The FOIL Standard has the support of the Law Society, the ABI and the Chartered Institute of Insurance, all of whom always want to see the highest levels of professionalism being promoted."
Using the knowledge and expertise of its sector focus teams, FOIL has produced Statements of Legal Knowledge for 10 specialist areas of insurance law, from first-party fraud to motor and clinical negligence and catastrophic injury (a full list can be found at www.foil.org.uk).