Ric Wightman
Consultant Solicitor
Ric Wightman
Consultant Solicitor
Ric Wightman trained with Simmons & Simmons and qualified as a solicitor in 2009.
Ric joined Wynterhill in 2019 from a leading global insurer where he managed the professional indemnity, cyber and title indemnity claims team in the UK, developing an intimate understanding of policy wordings, how insurance companies review notifications and take coverage decisions, and how they approach disputes with policyholders and their brokers.
Since returning to private practice Ric has advised policyholders and brokers in relation to coverage disputes concerning the following insurance products: business interruption, construction (CAR, D&C, latent defects, PL), management liability, professional indemnity, property and specie. Ric also acts on behalf of claimants in professional negligence disputes and other commercial litigation, and regularly receives referrals from conflicted lawyers.
Client matter highlights
Wynterhill matters
- Advised a developer regarding its claim under a building defects policy concerning fire safety issues following the Grenfell Tower fire.
- Advised a specialist supplier of cross-laminated timber panels regarding notification issues under a professional indemnity policy.
- Advised a contractor specialising in the design, manufacture and installation of building envelopes regarding design vs. workmanship issues under a professional indemnity policy and an associated recovery action.
- Advised a developer regarding a DE3 style exclusion in a CAR policy.
- Advised a Lloyd’s Coverholder following the declinature of its notification of a seven figure issue to its own professional indemnity policy.
- Advised several businesses in the retail, hospitality and travel sectors regarding business interruption losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, insurance claims under “Disease” and “Hybrid” style policy extensions and associated issues arising out of the FCA test case.
- Advised a global fashion brand in relation to seven figure losses claimed under the “Prevention of Access” style extension to its business interruption cover.
- Advised a leading provider of underground surveying services in relation to its plant and machinery cover and represented it at a mediation in an associated professional negligence dispute and in other associated recovery actions following an asbestos event.
- Advised a group of care homes and a former director regarding the duty of fair presentation under the Insurance Act 2015 and represented them at a tri-partite mediation involving property insurers and related errors and omissions following a fire.
- Represented the developer and operator of a renewable energy plant in a six-figure contractual dispute with a supplier.
Other experience
- Ric has defended hundreds of professional negligence claims in previous in-house roles and has played a leading role at dozens of successful mediations.
- Ric has extensive first-hand experience of how professional indemnity insurers approach the Pre-Action Protocol and ADR, reserve for claims and costs, are reported to by panel law firms and assess their appetite for risk.
- Ric played a key decision-making role in relation to two successful trials concerning multi-million pound claims against accountants: Scriven v Scriven and Evans Mockler Limited [2015] EWHC 1690 (Ch) and Instant Access Properties Limited (In Liquidation) v Jeffcote Donnison LLP, Mischcon De Reya and Others [2018] EWHC 756 (Ch)