Arson & Fraud

Quentin is a partner in Cooper Grace Ward’s Insurance team. Quentin is a specialist litigator with 30 years of legal practice as a litigator both as a Barrister and Solicitor. This includes nine years in criminal law as a Federal Crown Prosecutor and 21 years specialising in insurance matters.

Quentin advises clients in the following areas:

• General insurance including public liability, products liability, Body Corporate liability, arson and fraud claims, defamation, and Insurance Ombudsman references
• Recovery actions in a variety of matters, including in the cases of Nominal Defendant v Duntroon Holdings [2008] QCA 183, Nominal Defendant v Chaffey & Ors [2011] QSC 088 and Nominal Defendant v Buchan [2011] QSC 364.
• Professional indemnity
• Federal Workers’ Compensation.

Quentin also has a broad range of experience in a wide variety of matters including:

• Personal injuries claims
• Breaches of statutory duty
• Motor vehicle accident claims
• High level insurance related commercial litigation
• Compulsory third party (CTP)
• Arson and fraud matters.

He has advised and delivered papers on a variety of insurance related topics, and has also drafted a Motor Vehicle At Fault Insurance Policy for an insurance company. Quentin has conducted prosecutions successfully for the Motor Accident Insurance Commission.

He recently had one of his matters resolved for The Nominal Defendant in one of the largest amounts ever recovered upon a recovery action in Queensland.

In the 2008 Australasian Legal Business (ALB) Guide to Insurance Law, Cooper Grace Ward was ranked in the top leading three firms in Queensland in insurance law. The firm was recommended for an ability to produce quality results and is considered “ahead of the pack” in the Queensland Insurance Law Market. Quentin was praised for having “simply brilliant general insurance skills".

Quentin was named in the 2011 Chambers’ rankings as one of Australia’s leading lawyers in the Insurance division. Quentin was the only Queensland lawyer to be named in the Insurance Division of this prestigious list.

Arson and fraud are costly to the insurance industry and are issues which can occur in motor vehicle accident and public liability claims, as well as general insurance claims.  Our team is alert to these possibilities when defending claims and will recommend expert investigations where necessary.

Cooper Grace Ward partner Quentin Owen had nearly a decade of experience as a Federal crown prosecutor, prior to entering private legal practice. He successfully prosecuted in many different jurisdictions on a wide variety of matters, including arson and fraud claims.

Over the years he referred a number of cases to the Queensland and New South Wales police to investigate allegations of fraud or arson which were proved to be well founded.

Quentin is an honorary solicitor of the Queensland Association of Fire Investigators and regularly speaks on arson and fraud related topics.

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