A new Swiss Re Institute sigma report, Litigation costs drive claims inflation: indexing liability loss trends, discusses why the United States has the largest liability risk pool in the world – one that is expanding rapidly – but also notes that the Canadian industry, while not subject to the high verdicts witnessed in the U.S., is still not immune from the effects of social inflation on claims.  

“U.S. commercial casualty insurance sector losses grew at an average annual rate of 11 per cent over the last five years to reach $143-billion (figures in U.S. dollars) in 2023. For sense of scale, that sum is 33 per cent more than all the insured losses from natural catastrophe events that took place globally last year,” the report’s authors state. “Unlike economic inflation, which is decelerating, social inflation shows no signs of abating.”  

The report looks extensively at the drivers of social inflation, litigation funding sources, countries most exposed to liability risk, emerging liability risks and measures of social inflation.  

Social inflation 

In 2023, they note that there were 27 cases of courts awarding more than $100-million in compensation in the U.S. “Other countries with common-law systems like Australia, Canada, and the UK share some of the driving forces of social inflation as the U.S. but are not as exposed to the same degree of runaway awards. Social inflation in those countries is largely linked to the expansion of mass tort.” 

The report estimates that social inflation contributed seven per cent to claims growth in Canada in 2022, “linked to the spillover effects from U.S. risks and the expansion of mass tort.” The report also notes a rise in shareholder activism above pre-pandemic levels. “Last year, 47 Canadian companies were targeted by activists,” they note.