Legal context

As stipulated by the insurance law article 48, one or more insurance arbitration councils may be set up to look into disputes relating to financial claims resulting from medication and hospitalization insurance policies, as well as insurance policies covering vehicles, carriages and traffic accidents, subject to the following two conditions:

• The amount of the claim must be less than seventy-five million Lebanese pounds

• The plaintiff must not have filed a court case in connection with the same incident. Should a court case be filed subsequent to the submission of the dispute to the arbitration board, the latter will suspend the case, and will then cross it out as a matter of course or at the request of one of the two parties

Practical considerations

Any text inserted in the insurance policy, aiming or intending to exclude the competence of the insurance arbitration council is considered as null and void.
All cases brought before the insurance arbitration council are exempt from judicial taxes and stamp duties, but not from costs.
Cases may be filed with the insurance arbitration council, and the parties concerned may attend the sitting, without the need for a lawyer.

Special provisions

Verdicts by the insurance arbitration council are not open to recourse, except the appeal, the appeal by third parties and the recourse to the Cassation Court in conformity with the rules stated in the Code of Civil Procedure, taking into account the following special provisions:

• Cases brought before the Cassation Court are exempt from judicial taxes, except for the guarantee and the expenses.

• The time-limit for recourse to the Cassation Court is thirty days, starting, for “judgment in presence” cases, from the date of the notification of the final verdict, and for “in absentia” cases, from the date when the time-limit for appeal expires.

• The Cassation Court must deliver its sentence within no more than six months from the date on which the notifications have been concluded.

• Recourse to the Cassation Court does not stop the enforcement of the sentence. The Cassation Court may order a stay of execution within not more than five days from the date when the ad hoc petition was submitted, provided that in all cases, the stay of execution does not exceed the time-limit of six months which was fixed in the preceding paragraph for the Cassation Court to issue its sentence.
  At the end of the period defined in the stay of execution sentence, the winning party may proceed with the enforcement without a guarantee.