This insurance dispute pertains to whether regulatory changes justify facility improvement costs that exceed replacement-in-kind. Following a fire initiated by static electricity, the owner and insurer disagreed as to whether a different and more costly design was required to ensure plant safety. The pre-arbitration mediation required expertise in applicable engineering codes, normal industry practice, and fire origin and cause expertise pertaining to hydrocarbons and static charge.

An accident in a busy ship channel closed shipping traffic for a number of days, resulting in refineries and chemical plants having to adjust process rates to avoid shutdowns. Baker & O'Brien assessed the reasonableness of a refiner's business interruption claim based on lower crude throughput, lower secondary processing, and ship demurrage charges. Our independent review of the refiner's actions and quantum of the losses figured in to negotiating a settlement.