Litigation and arbitration should be assumed to be natural conclusions of claim disputes between insurers and reinsurers, a top insurance lawyer said yesterday at the International Reinsurance Congress.

"Why do we have to arbitrate, can't we draft a contract that makes sense?'' James Johnson, senior partner at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, asked.

As an insurance law specialist, Mr. Johnson handles legislative, regulatory and insolvency matters affecting insurers and reinsurers. He advocates tort reform and argues that too much insurance litigation is unhealthy for the legal business because it threatens to sever the hand that feeds it.

The first step to prevent disputes is to examine the contracts between insurers and reinsurers with a view to drafting contracts in language that can be understood. Even some US and UK judges do not understand the arcane terms used in contracts, he said.

"You should not have coverage disputes between professionals. Let's figure out how to draft some decent agreements,'' he said.

On the past issues, Mr. Johnson also said he was amazed to learn that Equitas, the vehicle set up to reinsure the 1992 and prior years of Lloyd's of London, faced 220,000 reinsurance contracts with over 3,000 reinsurance companies.

On future legal issues, Mr. Johnson said: "I believe electromagnetic fields (EMFs) have a good potential to be the next asbestosis.

EMFs are the fields of energy generated by everything from high tension transmission wires to cordless telephones and from toasters to electric blankets.

"There is no scientific proof that EMFs cause problems, but when has science stopped litigation.'' Another major issue looming on the horizon, according to Mr. Johnson, is a bizarre inability of computers to cope with the year 2000.

The problem -- computers may find themselves rolling back to the year 1900 instead of ahead to the year 2000.

Insurers may have to address the risks under product liability and interruption of business claims.

Marketing insurance business over the Internet is also a significant legal issue, he said.

"The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is looking at this issue,'' he said.