Policyholders filing suit against CLICO directors, regulators in Barbados

At its last general meeting on July 11, the BIPA members present instructed the group’s attorney-at-Law Tariq Khan to invoke Pre-Action Protocols against the directors of CLICO.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday July 19, 2012 – After waiting for months with no satisfaction from either the Barbados government or the judicial managers charged with handling the affairs of CLICO, the collective of disenfranchised policyholders is turning to the law courts to help them recover their investments.

This is according to the latest release from the Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA), the self-appointed association formed by disaffected CLICO and British American Insurance policyholders who have been unable to cash in their investments or get annuities owed to them since the collapse of the Trinidad-based CLICO Financial, which has had devastating ripple effects across the investment climate of the Caribbean.

The release stated that at its last general meeting on July 11, the BIPA members present instructed the group’s attorney-at-Law Tariq Khan to invoke Pre-Action Protocols against the directors of CLICO, the Office of the Supervisor of Insurance (which has been subsumed into the Financial Service Commission since last year) and others.

This, explained the release, was their first step in the process of establishing who ought to be subject to legal action as a result of the collapse of the insurance company which has left many of the 25,000 Barbadian CLICO policyholders and their families in a state of desperation and destitution.

“Many of our members wanted to do this from the start,” says BIPA Chairperson June Fowler, “but we fully expected the Judicial Manager to initiate action of this kind a long time ago, and kept recommending to our members that we would explore all other avenues of persuasion and inclusion before considering and initiating legal action such as this.”

“But after over a year of trying to bring pressure via the media for an early solution; putting up with a litany of unfulfilled promises, empty reassurances, the ‘silent’ treatment from Government, as well as resistance to BIPA’s application to participate in the Judicial Management process as a legitimate intervener, the Alliance is unable to contain its frustration any longer and has decided enough is enough!” she stated. Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)