I recently had a collision. It wasn’t my fault and the other driver was great at notifying his insurer quickly and arranging repairs.
This coincided with renewing insurance on our other car (high roller, a Kia and a Hyundai). There was a box to complete relating to historic insurance claims and my immediate thought was that I didn’t have any. As a former (reformed?) insurance / reinsurance litigator, the cogs started whirring (slowly) and I realised that I would need to disclose the fact that I had been hit that week and that the at-fault driver’s insurers were dealing with the matter.
In practical terms, this meant a small increase in premium, which the operator at the insurer couldn’t explain away and gave me a discount when questioned. But in real terms, what this means is that the insurer couldn’t refuse a claim based on non-disclosure (i.e. not giving them all the information before taking out the policy so they could decide whether to accept me as an insured, or not) if I ever did need to make a claim on this policy.
It seemed so minor, but the failure to correctly tick the box could have been a very expensive mistake were I ever needing to rely on my insurer for cover.
This got me thinking about how many times I have ticked online boxes confirming that I have read CompanyX’s terms and conditions without actually reading them or even opening them. As a solicitor, I should know better. But I don’t. For me, whether I read them usually depends on a quick scrap-of-paper analysis of the risk in my head – what is the likely cost (or loss) to me if something goes wrong.
When I am working on the flipside, drafting terms and conditions for clients in Cornwall, I often suggest that they pull out key terms (such as cancellation, liability, main obligations) and how they affect the end user (whether a consumer or business). These are then flagged to the end user prior to them downloading / scrolling-very-quickly-through the relevant contract. There is no need to do this and it makes a bit of additional work but I think it’s helpful for the end user and the majority of my clients are working to make life easier or better for end users as that is what drives their business.
Next time you’re faced with a check box to confirm you have or haven’t done something, maybe just take 30 seconds of your time to think about what you are agreeing. And if there is the teeniest of red flags in your head, make sure you read it and understand it.
The Law Collective, Cornwall, ticking all the right boxes (mostly).