About Woodina Law
Woodina Law Pty Ltd is an incorporated legal practice that specialises in insurance law, particularly responding to professional indemnity and public and product liability claims against our insured clients. We currently provide legal services nationally and exclusively to Woodina Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd and its insureds. Woodina Law is a vibrant Brisbane based company with a progressive and innovative attitude.
We pride ourselves on being a leading provider of legal services and claims management in the insurance industry through proactive, efficient and cost effective provision of high quality in-house legal services. Our insured clients can be confident that they will be treated with respect and understanding and that we will strive to bring them, and their insurers, the best possible results.
Areas of Practice
The team at Woodina Law specialises in providing its associated company, Woodina Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd, its various Lloyds syndicates and its insureds and broker clients with insurance law advice based on the areas currently underwritten by the underwriting agency. Its primary role is to assist in investigating and resolving or defending professional indemnity claims and public or product liability claims against the insured clients of Woodina Underwriting .
To the Lloyds syndicates, Woodina Law offers provision of legal services from notifications of claim or circumstance, early and accurate reserving, regular advice and clear communication.
Our direct relationship with the insured from notification allows our broker clients to be involved as little as they would like in the claims process but regardless of their level of involvement, we ensure we keep them informed of key developments in the claim.
For our insureds, we offer excellent, efficient and proactive legal services, usually as part of their paid premium, creative problem solving, reduced defence outlays and associated competitive premiums with Woodina Underwriting . Having an experienced lawyer on board at notification increases speed of payments of valid claims, reduces claim frequency due to proactive negotiation and significantly reduces defence costs, usually limited to the rare occasion when counsel or an expert need to be briefed.
Our cost effective and experienced in-house claims model is our point of difference. Many other underwriting agencies have in-house claims managers but not in-house lawyers with extensive experience in the area. Due to the significant reduction in defence costs, Woodina Underwriting can offer competitive premiums to insureds, despite claims against them.
We keep defence and claims costs low by:
Our in-house service enables us to maintain closer relationships with insureds, due to direct access between lawyer and insured from the start, with brokers being kept informed of key developments on claims.
In addition, our low internal legal costs mean that if a matter is worth fighting to trial, we can avoid commercial settlements and fight, as we will not be hampered by the legal costs of an external law firm.
Our People
Michael Wood
Legal Practitioner Director
(07) 3222 9401
michael.wood@woodina.com.au
Michael has 30 years’ insurance experience. Starting as an insurance lawyer at Morris Fletcher & Cross in Brisbane in 1985, he moved to London in 1990. He became a Partner at Waltons & Morse in 1993 and a Partner of Eversheds in 1996, specialising in PI insurance. In 1997 he launched his own PI underwriting agency called PI Direct, later Martello Professional Risks. The agency was unique in its approach, writing business both direct and through brokers, with an inhouse claims model saving on defence costs. It grew to 50M pounds gross premium and was sold to Royal Sun Alliance in December 2006. Michael had purchased a wholesale Australian PI insurance brokerage called PI Direct Insurance Brokers in 2004. After returning to Australia in 2011, Michael started Woodina Underwriting Agency in January 2012 and sold PI Direct Insurance Brokers into Steadfast in 2013.
