WEBINAR Vicarious Liability: have we reached the final destination?

Vicarious Liability

On 1 April 2020, the Supreme Court handed down its judgments in two highly important cases for employers and the insurance industry: Various Claimants v Barclays Bank and Various Claimants v Morrisons. The Court of Appeal had held Barclays to be vicariously liable for the actions of an independent contractor and Morrisons liable for a major data breach committed by a rogue employee who was subsequently sentenced to prison. The Supreme Court has overturned both decisions. In recent years, the law relating to vicarious liability has been in constant motion. What did the Supreme Court say in the Barclays and Morrisons judgments and how will this impact employers and insurance companies? Have we finally got some certainty in this area of law?

This thought-provoking webinar will look at both sides of the argument and assess how best employers and the insurance industry can adapt to these recent developments.

Jeff Heasman, Insurance Upskill
Jeff Heasman is a leading international trainer and is recognised throughout the world for his work around soft skills within the insurance and financial services industries. Jeff holds both a bachelors and masters degree in laws and after many years of experience working within the legal and insurance industries as a litigation executive and senior liability adjuster, Jeff subsequently qualified as a language instructor and is a certified practitioner member of the Academy of Modern Applied Psychology.

Jeff has been Dean of the Faculty of Law at Cavendish University Zambia (CUZ) in Africa, where he was also a lecturer in the law of torts. He has also been a tutor in law and language at Swansea University. He has delivered courses in Business English to MBA students and company directors at ESIC University in Pamplona, Spain. He still provides personal tuition in communication skills to executives in banks and financial services across the world but especially in Turkey and Spain.

Jeff has delivered many public lectures on subjects such as the law of torts and plain language and has provided training in insurance law and practice to some of the world's largest and most prestigious organisations, as well as regularly providing seminars for the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and Chartered Institute for Securities and Investments (CISI). Jeff is often asked to write blogs and articles for different organisations on law, skills and communication, including for the global industry newspaper, The Lawyer. He has taken part in media debates on the insurance industry in the UK and has also appeared on national television and radio in various countries, primarily talking about professional communication skills. He maintains close links to the insurance industry by providing plain language editing services to help companies ensure their documents are readable and accessible for customers.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

identify how the law relating to vicarious liability has developed.
critically analyse recent decisions of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
assess how employers and the insurance industry can adapt their practices to ensure the best outcome possible in light of recent decisions.