Dispute Resolution, Insurance, and Points of Convergence

Robert H. Jerry, II, Isidor Loeb Professor of Law and Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, University of Missouri School of Law, has published “Dispute Resolution, Insurance, and Points of Convergence,” 2015 Journal of Dispute Resolution, Forthcoming; University of Missouri School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2015-28. In his article, Professor Jerry examines the many ways in which alternative dispute resolution intersects with insurance law.

Here is the abstract:

This paper introduces Volume 2015 of the Journal of Dispute Resolution (JDR) and marks the advent of an insurance law initiative under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri School of Law. The paper contends that dispute resolution and insurance intersect in numerous ways, and that dispute resolution is a largely untapped resource for deepening understandings of how insurance claims are resolved and existing claims processes might be improved. Thus, it encourages experts in both fields to collaborate to address various legal and policy issues that arise in insurance law. As a descriptive piece which does not intend to be comprehensive, the paper identifies various points of convergence and explains their importance. After comments on the scope, importance, and purpose of the business of insurance, the paper describes and briefly explores four specific points of convergence: mediation of property insurance claims in mass disasters; appraisal in property insurance, which has characteristics of both mediation and arbitration; arbitration as it arises in personal automobile insurance, some commercial liability insurance, and crop insurance, and as it pervades reinsurance; and mediation and arbitration in health insurance. Professor S.I. Strong expands on these themes as they arise in international insurance and reinsurance in her paper, which will be published in JDR as a response to this paper, titled “The Special Nature of International Insurance and Reinsurance Arbitration: A Response to Professor Jerry.”

This and other scholarly articles authored by Professor Jerry may be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network.

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