Judith Cohen, the first chairman of the General Insurance Enquiries and Complaints (IEC) scheme – the forerunner of the Insurance Ombudsman – has died at the age of 86.

Ms Cohen was appointed to lead the three-person panel in September 1991.

Regarded as a pioneer in complaints resolution for the industry, she drew on her background as a schoolteacher, lawyer and industrial court commissioner to move the industry forward into accepting an independent complaints body.

She was influential in establishing the procedure, including determinations in the form of reasoned statements based on the facts of the case drawn from the parties’ written material.

She retired from the panel in 1996, but remained as alternate chairman until 1999.

Ms Cohen was born at Coogee in 1926 and graduated from the University of Sydney in arts and law. She moved to Melbourne following her marriage to Senator Sam Cohen, QC, in 1953.

After her husband died in 1969, Ms Cohen resumed legal practice until her appointment in 1975 to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, of which she was the first female commissioner.

She was appointed Deputy President in 1980 and retired in 1991.

Ms Cohen was awarded an AO in 1992 for services to industrial relations.