WHY COB MATTERS: from the IETL perspective
As part of our celebrations to mark the 75th Anniversary of COB, we wanted to recognise the key organisational relationships that have been fostered and nurtured over the years.
We felt this was an ideal opportunity to provide some insight on the nature of these vital collaborations and the important role they play in the ongoing operation of COB.
Over the last decade, COB’s collaboration with the Institute for European Traffic Law (IETL) has intensified and become increasingly fruitful. COB is honoured by this partnership. We extend our thanks to Mr. Martin Metzler, Honorary Member of the IETL, for writing this article, and to the IETL for their valuable and cordial support.
COB has invited the Institute for European Transport Law (IETL) to write a partnership contribution in its anniversary year 2024, in which it looks back on 75 years of successful work, but also looks to the future: ‘Why COB matters - from the perspective of the IETL’.
The answer to this question can be found in the amicable relationship between the two institutions. First and foremost, it is the contribution made by COB. Every year, speakers are invited as representatives of COB to report on current events at the annual IETL congress ‘Traffic Law Days’ under the section ‘COB News’.
Topics that are of interest to the audience at the Traffic Law Days are also explained: The applicable contractual rules of international claims settlement are explained to the claims handlers from insurance companies and claims settlement companies in attendance, who make up the vast majority of the participants.
These are the rules that have been agreed by the 43 National Insurance Bureaux that are members of COB as an umbrella organisation. Naturally, all National Insurance Bureaux make it their task to communicate these rules to their members, the national insurance companies, so that they can be applied as smoothly as possible across borders. In this way, the COB association system provides all motor vehicle liability insurers in Europe and the Mediterranean region (COB's scope of action) with updates and guidance on the procedure for international claims settlement following accidents that have a cross-border impact.
This process is akin to an Olympic sport: in order for a sporting competition to take place across borders, the athletes must master the rules of the game, indeed they must become a habitual, even if rules are subject to change over the years. Individual performance can only develop if these rules are mastered and adhered to down to the last detail. For example, any person who has to settle international claims will only do their job correctly if their local expertise - namely their sound professional knowledge and competence in the appropriate handling of the applicable law, jurisdiction and insurance conditions - is, woven into a correspondingly reliable knowledge of international rules. These can be of a contractual or legal nature, such as European directives or European regulations, i.e. European law and international agreements.
The lawyers who regularly attend the IETL's annual congresses also receive regular further professional training here. It is beneficial that, not only the lawyers who represent insurance companies - in some cases also in court - know the ‘rules of the game’, but also the lawyers who represent the victims in road traffic accident claims. The better those settling, disputing, paying or otherwise involved and interested in the claims settlement process know their ‘métier’ and adhere to its rules, the more smoothly even very complex issues can be resolved which can be akin to solving the Gordian knot!
COB itself has an understandable interest in ensuring that its rules are known and adhered to. To this end, the IETL reserves time slots for COB at both the Traffic Law Days and its seminars for lectures and workshops that serve the purpose of further professional training. The whole thing becomes a win-win relationship: COB's contributions enrich the IETL's events. On the other hand, the speakers participating from COB will also benefit from the lectures and knowledge transfer provided by renowned speakers that the IETL can call upon.
Ultimately, however, there is another factor to be mentioned in this contribution: this important, complementary factor is the personal contacts that can be cultivated at these events. They are like the oil in a gearbox. Or, to use the sports analogy again: athletes of all disciplines are happy to have fellow athletes with whom they can exchange ideas and from whom they can learn. Such contacts often grow far beyond the purely professional and become friendships that enrich the lives of individuals.
In this sense, the relationship between COB and the IETL has grown into a friendship over the years. Representatives from both sides appreciate each other and regularly enjoy the convivial moments and social events that have become a much-loved element of these gatherings. These in turn strengthen the bonds of friendship and thus serve the cause.
A by-product of this friendship has evolved into a joint project, which COB has taken on, together with the IETL in cooperation with the UNECE Secretariat.
Here are the details of this project:
Over the years, the realisation has grown that the contractual and legal rules and the know-how of international claims settlement are by no means an end in themselves or should only benefit the insurance companies, but ultimately serve to give the injured road accident victims the outcomes to which they are rightly entitled to as compensation for the property damage or personal injury they have suffered.
Moreover, with a great deal of empathy for road accident victims and their situation, it is firmly believed that this compensation should be paid to them in a fair, friendly, unbureaucratic, quick and effective manner.
The road accident victims should experience the insurer as a competent, uncomplicated, fair and helpful partner and not as an opponent. This has led to a catalogue of rules of conduct, a kind of etiquette that insurers and loss adjusters want to adhere to.
A few years ago, the UNECE characterised this catalogue as the ‘Charter of Road Traffic Victims’ Rights’ and recommends that all parties involved in claims settlement comply with its rules and regulations. However, road accident victims and their legal representatives are also called upon to observe the rules of fairness and mutual respect.
If claims settlement is actually practiced by all parties involved in the spirit of the ‘Charter of Road Traffic Victims’ Rights’, this will undoubtedly lead to smoother claims settlement. As a result, there will also be significantly fewer disputes and legal arguments with injured parties leading to a saving in costs... And this is not the only benefit.
It also leads to a generally better public image of insurers and more trust on the part of the injured parties. Trust then forms the basis on which customers conclude insurance contracts. From this perspective, the insurance companies themselves ultimately become the beneficiaries of this Charter.
COB and the IETL, together with the UNECE Secretariat, have every right to be proud when they, convinced of the importance of the Charter, emphatically call on all those involved in international claims settlement to raise the standard of their work to a higher level: beyond the purely legal to an ethical level; ultimately to a fair and equitable claims settlement ethos.
Martin Metzler, Honorary member of the IETL, on behalf of the IETL
Martin Metzler initially worked as a lawyer and then moved into the insurance industry: Winterthur Insurance (now AXA), Secretary of the Swiss Insurance Association, Zurich Insurance (Head of International Claims), President of the National Bureau of Insurance and Guarantee Fund, Vice President of the Institute for European Traffic Law.
