Choose the month of the 2013 archive you would like to browse from the links below. You can choose other years to browse from the menu on the left.

Class action expected over Blackberry outage

Insurance industry workers are still recovering from the recent disruption to their Blackberry service. Denied access to their emails and to the Internet by technical problems at service provider Research In Motion, thousands of London insurance executives suffered severe mental stress due to the outage.

No Blackberry no comment

The BlackBerry has become a favourite mobile communications gadget among senior managers since the service began two years ago. But many have become addicted to the device and have to consult it almost continuously. For these so-called Crackberry Blackheads life without their little belt mounted machine is hardly worth living.

Reinsurance broker Steve Grabber, a Blackberry addict for the last 12 months, described the cold turkey he experienced as horrific. "During my commute into the City from Essex I was just rocking backwards and forwards, curled up in the foetal position," he told RISKbitz. "When I got to the office it was like being in an asylum. My colleagues were in a daze. They didn't know what to do. One poor guy was just tapping away at his dead Blackberry like it still worked."

Other managers reacted more angrily, throwing their Blackberries out of office windows or under passing buses, shrieking "Why, why, why?" Marketing executive Polly Posh-Oiseau said that the disruption had cost her her job. "My colleagues expect to receive at least 5,000 emails per day from me, reminding them about something or other," she squealed. "When nothing came through for, like, a whole day they realised they could do without me."

The Association of British Insurers said that it would be starting a counselling service to help insurance managers come to terms with their loss. "This outage - or should I say outrage - will be indelibly stamped on the memories of busy insurance managers," said occupational therapist Prof Clement Schrenk. "Many will carry the scars with them forever."

A number of lawyers are expected to file class actions over the Blackberry outage. "This incident caused insurance managers unnecessary suffering from which many will not recover," said Simon Fulcher, a partner with Ambulance, Chaser & Leggit. "And, off the record, I'm going to milk it for all its worth."