New COVID-19 litigation tracker to help manage casualty exposures

Insurtech Praedicat, a risk analytics software company, has launched a COVID-19 litigation tracker to help clients manage their exposure on casualty lines of business.

The insurtech has developed nine scenarios that represent a range of ultimate pandemic outcomes, including fully-specified causes of action, numbers of plaintiffs, and defendant industries. Praedicat said the losses from these scenarios will be simulated under various estimates of the potential scale of the pandemic and assigned to potentially responsible companies.

The platform will enable clients to use the projected industrial footprint of the scenarios to estimate limits exposed and to evaluate the potential tail risk of coronavirus. The information can be used to develop underwriting strategies, evaluate the adequacy of reserves, and to enable them to respond to exposure inquiries from regulatory authorities and rating agencies.

The COVID-19 litigation tracker will be available in all US states and the District of Columbia. The data will include all cases and defendants in all jurisdictions related to the coronavirus, often prior to claims made to insurers.

Melissa Boudreau, senior vice president of modeling at Praedicat, said: “The COVID-19 global pandemic is a human tragedy affecting millions of people globally and its course remains uncertain. As recent events have demonstrated, we anticipate there will be scope for arguing in court that individual or business losses were, at least in part, caused by the negligent actions of others. That is why we have developed these scenarios to allow our clients to manage their risks.”

Dave Loughran, senior vice president of product and chief economist at Praedicat, added: “Casualty insurers will need to manage the potential litigation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as anticipating their reserving needs. Our ground-breaking US court liability tracking data tool will allow clients to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on casualty lines of business and help them to manage their exposures.”