Insurance - Portugal
The Insurance Law department at Belzuz Abogados, S.L.P. began its activity as part of the Commercial Law department, advising our clients on aspects related to the insurance sector.
The growing demand for services related to the world of insurance and the particularity and specialisation required by this sector made it necessary to create a department in 1998 to analyse and study insurance law issues in a differentiated manner.
Our experience
We have extensive experience in legal advice in the insurance regulatory area, providing legal advice to Spanish and foreign insurance companies.
We have a multidisciplinary and multinational team, made up of lawyers in Spain and Portugal specialising in insurance, commercial, tax and procedural law, to handle matters correctly, both in terms of consultancy and advice and in the judicial and extrajudicial management of claims.
Our clients
The main national and international insurance companies entrust their claims to our team. We are currently involved in all types of major claims, in all lines of insurance.
With the support of the Litigation area, Belzuz Abogados is involved in multiple judicial, arbitration and expert proceedings for the correct handling of claims at a national level.
Global Service
Our presence in Spain and Portugal, with our own offices in Madrid, Lisbon and Porto, allows us to offer the insurance sector a global service throughout the Iberian Peninsula, providing added value in the processing of claims for insurers.
We have been directly involved in the implementation of different insurance companies in the Iberian market, helping them to grow and adapt their structures and policies to local requirements and peculiarities.
A spirit of negotiation
At Belzuz Abogados we are driven by a spirit of negotiation and intervene on behalf of our clients in the search for conciliatory solutions, avoiding recourse to the courts as far as possible.
INTERNATIONAL VOCATION - INSURALEX Claims and Legal Defence
With a clear international vocation, Belzuz Abogados S.L.P. in Spain and Belzuz Abogados – Sucursal in Portugal, participated in 2002 in the creation of INSURALEX – Global Insurance Lawyers Group (www.insuralex.com), an international group of law firms specialising in insurance and reinsurance, which has more than 50 associated law firms from 38 different jurisdictions around the world. INSURALEX was created with the aim of facilitating insurance claims as a result of economic globalisation and has a great spirit of growth.
We have extensive experience in insurance and reinsurance law, advising both Spanish and foreign insurance and reinsurance companies, with a multidisciplinary team made up of lawyers in Spain and Portugal, specialising in insurance and reinsurance, civil liability in all its areas and procedural law, as well as lawyers from the commercial and tax departments, who enable a complete approach to the client’s needs from the perspective of all legal branches.
Within this department we provide the following legal services
Advice and opinions on applicable legislation
Relations with the ASF -Autoridade de Supervisão de Seguros e Fundos de Pensões – (access to the insurance business, extension of authorisation for the business, revocation of authorisations, infringements and sanctions, complaints to the supervisory authority)
Analysing and adapting policies (drafting general, particular and special conditions, analysing and limiting risk, etc)
Consultations with the regulatory body ASF, specifically on financial products for investment. All this in direct dialogue with the regulator
Rights and obligations of the parties, payment of premiums, quantification of compensation
Legal advice for agents, brokers and other insurance distributors, selection of the insurance distributor that best suits the client’s interests
We intervene in the handling, claim and/or legal defence or resolution of issues related to civil liability
- Product liability and industrial risks
We have extensive experience in advising on and defending product liability matters, having been involved in a number of complex cases relating to the industrial risk, food, pharmaceutical, medical devices and construction sectors, where we have managed the defence of large national and international mass claims for major companies and their insurers
- Medical liability/medical personnel
- Medical negligence claims
Legal assistance in out-of-court and court cases of liability for medical negligence, providing advice, monitoring and legal direction in claims, in administrative, civil or criminal proceedings, having advised and defended large insurance companies in multiple cases
- Informed consent
Advice on compliance with patients’ information obligations, analysis of the sufficiency of consent in collaboration with specialised medical experts and legal advice on legal actions
- Civil liability of nursing homes and similar social establishments
Legal advice in extrajudicial and judicial liability cases against social and healthcare establishments in all jurisdictions
- Actions against nursing homes
- Actions against palliative care centres
- General liability
- Directors’ liability D&O
- Environmental liability
- All risks/construction
Advice on claims management/negotiations
Pre-litigation and litigation, settlements and calculation of compensation
Recovery actions
Assessment of material and personal damage
Assistance and coordination with claims experts in assessing damage and identifying the causes of the claim
Legal defence
Advice on claims management/negotiation
Pre-litigation and legal claims, settlements and calculation of compensation
Claims for damages
Assessment of material and personal damage
Assistance and coordination with claims experts in assessing damage and identifying the causes of the claim
Legal defence
Setting up insurance companies
Setting up branches of foreign insurance companies
Mergers and acquisitions of insurance companies
Acquisition of portfolios
Tax representation in Spain of foreign companies under the Freedom to Provide Services (LPS) regime
Advice on claims management/negotiation
Pre-litigation and litigation, settlements and calculation of compensation
Recovery actions
Assessment of material and personal damage
Assistance and coordination with claims experts in assessing damage and identifying the causes of the claim
Legal defence
Advice on handling claims and out-of-court negotiations
Legal defence before the courts
Recovery and reimbursement actions
Filing precautionary measures to guarantee the smooth running of the case (seizures, attachment)
Management of enforcement proceedings and asset seizure procedures in coordination with the other professionals involved
Reviewing policies
Advice on managing/negotiating claims
Pre-litigation and legal claims, settlements and calculation of compensation
Recovery and reimbursement actions
Assessment of material and personal damage
Assistance and coordination with claims experts in assessing damage and identifying the causes of the claim
Legal defence
