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MARINE CLAIMS | Loss reporting In association with MatthewsDaniel
Transcending the Tweet: Loss reporting in the digital age David Cox, Chief Executive Officer at MatthewsDaniel, the leading London-based international loss adjusting and marine warranty surveying firm, discusses the significant impact of the modern era of communications on the perception of losses and the need to retain professional objectivity despite the ‘noise’ The loss of a ship; the ringing of the Lutine Bell; the Lloyd’s waiter, a trusted scribe, entering it in the Loss Book. A centuries’ old tradition of committing to record, and thereby to fact. The Lutine Bell, recovered from the wreck of HMS Lutine in 1858, came to be used to announce news of an overdue ship to those in the Lloyd’s market. It was simply struck once when a ship was known to have been lost, and twice for news of a safe arrival. What place does the Lutine Bell, a most basic form of The Marine Insurer Claims Edition | September 2021
communication, have in the modern world, at a time when shipping and insurance are increasingly reliant on technology, and data from ships can be transmitted across the world in a matter of moments, quickly becoming common knowledge and therefore construed as fact? Knowledge itself is power. Knowledge, and the sharing of knowledge, has been at the centre of insurance since its earliest inception. Lloyd’s of London arose alongside the desire to share knowledge; to exchange ideas; and ultimately to trade. But trade can breed sharp practice. A selective omission, a partial truth, or perhaps an outright lie are all inherent dangers of trade, of getting the best deal possible. The consequent desire to establish the true condition or ‘class’ of vessels to be insured led to the creation of thus-named classification societies. Such names as Bureau Veritas; Veritas, the Roman goddess of truth.
OBJECTIVE INFORMATION Truth? What renders something true is a definition too long and philosophical to discuss here, so we should perhaps allow ourselves to consider truth as being only that which may be established objectively. Objective information facilitates trade leaving the subjective elements to be weighed-up subjectively by the parties. Objectivity requires independence and impartiality. This is the
