MEXICO Trends and Developments Contributed by: Aldo Ocampo and Arturo Caballero Rossetti, OCAMPO 1890
civil matters of the First Circuit held that the appropri- ate route for an injured third party to bring the direct action under Article 147 of the LCS is civil and not commercial, because the route is determined by the event giving rise to liability and not by the existence of the insurance contract. Being an isolated thesis it is not binding, but it foreshadows a conflict of criteria whose resolution merits monitoring: its generalisation would shift a significant volume of liability litigation to local civil courts. Cover and sums insured Binding precedent 1a./J. 242/2025, derived from Direct Amparo in Review 839 / 2023 , holds that although insurers may establish differentiated cover, where harm is not fully covered according to the capac- ity in which the injured party is affected, the highest amount provided for in the policy must be applied. As a counterweight, binding precedent 1a./J. 241/2025, from the same precedent, confirms that the insurer, as a subsidiarily liable party, is bound only up to the limit of the sum insured, with the driver and the concession holder jointly liable for the excess. The reconciliation between the two is that the limit remains that of the policy, but within it the highest available cover must be selected. Counterweights Not every development is adverse. Regional Plenary case law published on 9 May 2025 confirmed that an insurer’s failure to exercise its right of avoidance for aggravation of risk within the statutory period does not constitute implied waiver, since tacit waiver depends on the insured having notified the aggravation in writ- ing before the loss, under Articles 52, 53 and 58 of the LCS. It is a reminder that pro-victim doctrine has not displaced contractual discipline where the insurer’s file is properly built. Article 276: default interest as an economic multiplier No analysis of Mexican insurance litigation is com- plete without Article 276 of the LISF. The provision requires the unpaid obligation to be denominated in Investment Units and default interest to be paid at 1.25 times the cost of funding for liabilities denomi- nated in such units, capitalised monthly and accruing daily. The creditor’s rights to such compensation are
non-waivable, and failure to pay the default compen- sation itself is subject to a fine. Section VII obliges judges and arbitrators to award default compensation where the principal claim suc- ceeds. In binding precedent 1a./J. 5/2021, mandatory since October 2021, the First Chamber held that the judge must make the award even where default inter- est was not claimed as relief in the original complaint – a statutory exception to the principle of congruence, justified by its deterrent effect. The result is a structural asymmetry of incentives. An inflation-indexed obligation, bearing monthly compounding interest and awarded ex officio, turns procedural time into an asset for the claimant and a growing liability for the insurer. When that arithmetic is combined with a 66.30% backlog in Circuit Courts, the duration of direct amparo ceases to be an admin- istrative statistic and becomes a first-order financial variable. In practice, delay has become a legitimate procedural objective for claimants. Rising litigation in an expanding market The available data describe a market that is simultane- ously growing and becoming more contentious. According to publicly reported figures from the National Commission for the Protection and Defence of Users of Financial Services (CONDUSEF), 36,634 complaints were filed against insurance institutions between January and September 2025. After two years of decline, complaints in the first four months of 2026 rebounded by approximately 8% against the same period of the prior year, concentrated in motor and medical expenses. In the motor line, denial of pay- ment accounts for roughly 34% of complaint causes, followed by repair time and payment time. The economic context explains part of the phenom- enon. According to the Mexican Association of Insur- ance Institutions, the sector exceeded MXN1 trillion in written premiums for the first time at the close of 2025, with real growth of approximately 8%. In the first half of 2026 direct premiums reached MXN558.94 billion, growing 5% year on year – below the historical range of 8% to 12% – while claims payments rose to MXN290.99 billion, with an increase close to 16% in
196 I NSURANCE L I T IGATI O N 2026
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