James Keogh

James is a legal director and head of credit hire at Kennedys and James is here to help our clients navigate what is often one of the ‘noisiest’ areas of motor claims. James has spent 17 years specialising in credit hire and damage as such he has seen the industry evolve through every peak and trough.  

James has acted for large global insurers, mono-line and specialist insurers to corporate clients and his practice covers all aspects of credit hire and motor claims from small claims to multi track claims, including:

• Liability and indemnity disputes;
• Repair and diminution;
• Personal injury associated with motor losses;
• Strategic exits from industry protocols.

Credit Hire is one of the most appealed areas of law in England & Wales in the last 20 years, and James had responsibility for conduct of the industry leading Court of Appeal decision in Zurich Insurance plc v Umerji [2014] EWCA Civ 357.  Leading that litigation was a career highlight for James as it helped reshape the legal definition of impecuniosity for the whole industry. 

Beyond the day-to-day management of the team, James’s focus is on using data-driven insights to provide clients with strategic advice on their credit hire and damage strategies from reviewing and advising on their current credit hire and damage strategies to collaborating with them on designing new strategies to ensure proactive claims handling to reduce a clients indemnity spend. 

James has led and devised several legal strategy on a credit hire protocol for a large global insurer against a large credit hire company resulting in excess of £15m net savings for that insurer.  This strategy was underpinned with a collaborative analysis with the insurer of their data on their pre-litigation performance and from data in litigated claims which helped us set a benchmark for both the duration of hire and hire rate that the insurer would pay overall outside of protocol.

James regularly advises clients on various damage strategies such as:

• Storage & recovery claims;
• Repair strategies;
• Diminution in vehicle value;
• Loss of Profit

Qualifications:

• Qualified solicitor in England & Wales in 2016