Legal Expenses Insurance

Legal expenses insurance is often termed "family legal protection" and may often be included either free or for a small additional premium in your household or motor insurance policies. These policies pay for the fees incurred by your solicitor in acting for you in a various types of legal claim and a type of claim often included is a personal injury claim. Some credit cards also have legal expenses insurance.

There are significant problems with this insurance but under the right circumstances it can be of some use. Here are the problems:-

• The first point to be aware of is that the insurer wants you to claim on the insurance because it sells your details for several hundered pounds to one of its panel solicitors who are very likely to be at the other end of the country so don't expect many in depth consultations!
• The second point is that the insurance company will attempt to be very persuasive and try to avoid you consulting a local firm - but this is not for your benefit - the motivation here  is the gaining of the referral fee from the panel solicitor
• The third point is that  the panel solicitors will have had to really reduce their fees charged to gain panel membership of the insurer's panel and that means that frequently they can only afford to put less experienced lawyers on to the case, perhaps clerks or paralegals. The fact that a referral fee of several hundred pounds has been paid may affect the amount of work which the panel solcitor is prepared to undertake for you
• The fourth point is that the insurer will ignore your legal right to appoint your own solicitor from the outset ( with one exception concerning breakdown insurance) and your legal right to insist that the insurer underwrites the fees -  see Regulation 6, Legal Expenses Insurance Regulations, 1990

The insurer would love to capture you but don't be fooled!

If you prefer face to face meetings with your solicitor, and the ability to call in to drop off documentation, etc., or to see how your case is getting on, the insurance company's choice of lawyer will not be for you. 

We can help you write a letter to your insurers in your name to request they appoint Salmons to deal with the claim under the insurance -  reputable insurers will usually agree to do so.

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