WASHINGTON -- Two officials from the Berkely Group, an insurance
agent based in Garden City, N.Y., will team up to address agency
risk management during the second annual National Travel Law
Symposium here early next year.
The 2000 symposium, open to all interested travel industry
personnel, is entitled Caveat Venditor: Current Trends and
Preventative Measures in Travel Agent Liability.
The Berkely Group is a professional liability insurance agent
specializing in the travel industry and representing more than
8,000 travel firms. Berkely's speakers will be Greg Takehara, vice
president for claims, and Maureen Kaye, vice president.
In a stage-setting opener, they will outline the typical
agency's liability exposure to claims from clients, and this will
include a discussion of service fees and their impact on the
agency's obligations to clients.
The speakers also will highlight evolving expectations of the
ever-more-sophisticated consumer -- in a more litigious society --
and the obligations that agencies take on, sometimes unwittingly,
based on printed itineraries, bro-chure handouts and oral
representations.
Takehara and Kaye will emphasize ways to minimize these
exposures and then turn to the ways insurance can help transfer
some of the risks of selling travel in the new century.
One discussion point aimed at helping agents minimize exposure
to client claims will focus on agency staff and formalized office
procedures.
The presenters will discuss and urge proper training, proper
file documentation, use of checklists and use of clear rules on
credit card acceptance. They also will discuss the importance of
selecting the "right" suppliers and of working effectively with
clients and suppliers when an incident occurs that could give rise
to a client claim against the agency.
When discussing the insurance option, Takehara and Kaye will
outline the kinds of insurance to consider, the kinds of things to
look for in a liability policy and, in the event of a court case,
the insurer's duty to defend and the insured's duty to
cooperate.
Finally, their discussion will include bonds as an alterative to
liability policies, and the presenters will point out the kinds of
things that cannot be insured.
Travel Weekly and ARTA are cosponsoring the law symposium with
MasterCard International.
The program will include invited speakers plus a number of
papers selected from among submissions provided by the legal and
travel communities. Travel attorneys, members of Congress and their
staff, law professors and travel professionals are invited to
submit papers on the symposium topic.
Al Anolik, ARTA's attorney, and Mark Pestronk, who contributes a
weekly law column to Travel Weekly and fields questions on the
Legal Issues forum at the newspaper's Web site
(www.twcrossroads.com), will select papers to be read at the Jan.
12 event. Anolik and Pestronk will be among the speakers as
well.
The registration fee is $59, covering lunch and a binder with
symposium papers.
According to the call for comments, papers should zero in on the
history of agent liabilities in terms of operating or sales and
marketing practices, comparisons in legal terms of these
liabilities with the challenges facing retailers and small
businesses in other industries and suggested strategies for agents
to resolve or minimize these liabilities.
To request a copy of the call for comments or to register for
the symposium, call (800) 969-6069 or e-mail [email protected].
Those proposing to write papers should send a 500-word precis as
soon as possible to ARTA at 2692 Richmond Road, Suite 202,
Lexington, Ky. 40509. The deadline for the final paper is Dec.
17.