Jurisdiction Based on Uncontested Appearance in Insurance Matters

Jurisdiction based on uncontested appearance takes place when a lawsuit is filed before a court that has no jurisdiction and the defendant, not challenging this lack of jurisdiction, enters an appearance. This leads to tacit prorogation, which is the realization of party autonomy and procedural economy. In matters relating to insurance, the differences between the tacit prorogation, as the basis for direct jurisdiction in the Brussels-Lugano regime, and indirect jurisdiction in the Hague Judgment Convention, manifest themselves mostly in the protection of a weaker party. Under the Hague Judgment Convention, there is no regulation expressly concerning this category of disputes. This is a different solution from the one adopted in the European civil procedural law, in which tacit prorogation is admissible in disputes with the participation of a weaker party, including the insuring party, the insured party, the insurance beneficiary and the injured party, with respect to the insurance company. Protection of the weaker party is effected through the obligation to inform about the consequences of entering an appearance. This has clear grounds in Art. 26(2) of Brussels I bis. However, there is no analogous regulation in the 2007 Lugano Convention which is a parallel act to the previous Brussels I Regulation.