The 'hard' facts of the U.K. liability market: the U.K. liability market was easy on...

It was a buyer's market for liability coverage in 2005 in the United Kingdom, according to the Marsh country report on the topic. The price of 1 million [euro] of coverage dropped 17 percent on average from 2004.

Clients had more say over cover, retention and limits in 2005, the report concludes. And in product liability, carriers AXA and Gerling returned to the market, boosting capacity.

The softening also resulted in part because of big-picture trends. Insurers were leaping into the liability market before the 2005 hurricanes, "chasing premiums" that they