there is usually no shortage of stories being passed around about bizarre insurance claims -- and RIMS was no exception.

Take the case of a white woman in Florida who, during a night out, was beaten up and robbed by a man who happened to be black. After careful consideration, the woman decided to file a workers' compensation claim against her employer for the subsequent stress she claimed to have suffered at work, where several colleagues were black. Unbelievably to many sensible people, her claim was successful, said Lee Carter, vice-president of US financial services firm Alexander & Alexander.

He was so intrigued and amused by such bizarre litigation that he entitled one of his RIMS seminars "Cold Sweats and Chest Pains -- is it Love or a Job Stress Claim?'' He said the US had a ridiculously high number of lawyers, more per capita than anywhere else in the world.

He added "One of my favourite quotes is from someone who said: `If the US keeps producing lawyers at the current rate, then by the year 2032 there will be more lawyers than people.'' * * * One of the more happy events to come out of the RIMS conference came when lovestruck Ted Dhooge, an American businessman, got RIMS officials to announce his proposal of marriage to blushing Grace Gagnet over the tannoy.

Grace, a delegate to the risk management seminar, was asked over the public address system if she would take the "ultimate risk''.