Legal expenses insurance (LEI) can be "Before the Event" (known as BTELEI) or "After the Event" (known as ATELEI). BTELEI is most commonly attached to your motor policy, although it can be attached to any policy, such as a credit card or house insurance. ATELEI can usually be obtained after the accident, provided you have a reasonable case.
Where you have a BTELEI policy at the time of your accident, your insurer will seek to appoint a solicitor for you, often without even asking you first. You may be taking pot luck on the solicitor you get, some are good, some are awful and there is a fair group in the middle. With most of them you may not even get a qualified lawyer looking after your case. To a lot of them the only concern is settling the case so they can be paid.
The legal expenses insurer may try and prevent you from using a solicitor they have not appointed. They may claim this will invalidate the policy or that you have no quality assurance if you do this. However, they are not allowed to restrict your choice of solicitor, they have to continue cover for any case that goes to Court. If you are not happy with the service you are receiving then you have the right to change solicitor.
Where you do not already have legal expenses insurance this can be obtained after the accident. Know what you are doing and you can obtain a policy which will defer the premium until the end, pay out if you lose and for which the other side have to pay for if you win.
If the case is tough, some legal expenses insurers are quite likely to withdraw cover. This is more likely to happen with ATE than BTE policies. They are happy to take your money, but do not want to risk having to pay out on the policy. Often the rejection of the case will be on the advice of your solicitor or on a technicality. Do not be fooled by this. Just because they are not prepared to back your case does not mean you have a case that can’t be won. Speak to us before you make any decisions.
LEI providers will only back cases with "reasonable" prospects of success. What is reasonable is always open to interpretation. They expect you to have at least 51% prospects of winning, but often confuse this with the liability apportionment. You can have 100% chances of winning but only be likely to recover 20% of your claim as you were also at fault. Some LEI providers argue this is below 51% and pull cover as a result. If the other side make an offer within 10% of the true value of your claim they will usually withdraw cover also.
We offer a no-obligation initial consultation. If it goes no further there is no charge. We can and do arrange after the event insurance. Call us now to see if we can take your case forward