Joneseys blog

If you’ve renewed your car or house insurance recently then no doubt you were asked if you wanted to pay a small extra premium for legal expenses insurance (often called LEI). You may wonder if it’s actually worthwhile, so I thought I’d write this guide to set out what it’s all about but also to point out one or two pitfalls that you may not be aware of.

The basic idea is simple – if you’ve got the insurance and you need a lawyer then they’ll pay the lawyers fees.

Of course there’s no such thing as a free lunch so there are normally exclusions – it will only cover certain types of problems and they will be set out on the policy itself – each one is different but typically it would be employment disputes, injury claims, complaints about products bought or maybe boundary disputes.. They will also want to make sure that you’ve got a reasonable chance of winning – they aren’t interested in paying for you to spend all your time suing people

So what are the pitfalls?

Pitfall number 1:-
It’s worthwhile checking the policy covers what you’re likely to need it for. If it’s being thrown in for free then you might just want to leave it – it’s something for nothing after all. But if you’re paying for it then there’s probably not much point in paying for it if it only covers you for stuff you don’t need. The only problem with this is, at the time you’re taking on the policy, chances are you’re speaking to someone in a call centre who doesn’t have the policy in front of them and is more likely to tell you it covers everything. When the policy comes through though it’s worth checking yourself though.

Pitfall number 2 (and this is the biggie):-
Which solicitor you can use. The beauty of these policies is that you can use your own solicitor and the policy will cover you. The problem is that sometimes insurance companies backing the policy have been known to put pressure on people to use their ‘pet’ solicitors. Allegedly. And if you’ve just had an accident and are looking into claiming on the policy then those awfully nice people from the insurance company can be very persuasive.

Whenever we start acting for a client on an accident claim, one of the first things we have to do is to check whether they have legal expenses insurance.

It works well because you can get a deal where we act for you and it costs you nothing – but to make that work you have to take out insurance to pay the other side’s legal costs just in case your case goes wrong.

It’s a great idea as if you win, this insurance and all the other costs are paid for by the other side, and if you lose, the insurance is designed to pay for itself and your expenses in bringing the claim.

But every single time we make these checks with the Insurance provider, the Legal Expenses Insurance provider contacts our clients and tells them that they MUST use the Insurance company’s ‘pet’ solicitors and not their own Solicitor.

Just to put the record straight – THIS IS RUBBISH

You can use whoever you like when you like and how you like.

It’s called freedom of choice.

We don’t know why the Insurance Companies want the work to go through their own solicitors – it could be that they supply them with so much work they are able to put pressure on them to control how they work (but remember they’re meant to be working for you), or it could be they are earning money from each referral – as we are not involved in that process we don’t know.

This pressure being put on clients has been happening for some time now, but now it is getting worse.

Today I had a call from a client who has used us loads of times before. She is very local to us and really happy with what we have done for her before.

Sadly she and her son had an accident and as normal we checked out the LEI.

Within the next few days she had numerous calls to say that she couldn’t use Fidler and Pepper and had to use whoever they told her under the LEI policy – and that was someone a long long way from where she lives.

Then, when she told them where to go, they started to text her son who is quite young (16 years old!) and telling him he couldn’t use the solicitor that his Mother had organised

5 times these people contacted our client and her teenage son begging them to use them after they had instructed us and she had told them very clearly where to go.

It makes you wonder how much benefit they are actually getting out of sending the case to their own solicitors.

If you have had a Personal Injury and want to see if you can claim using your Legal Expenses Insurance fill in the contact form on our site or just phone me or my staff to talk it through.

OK first of all – Don’t panic

The wife phoned distraught – she had just been in a bad car crash with the kids – thank God I’m boring and bought a Volvo estate.

Anyway everything’s fine now but I just thought I would share the process.

Step 1

I had to organise quick child care for my son who appeared to be fine but Mum and Daughter were off to the Hospital in an ambulance and it didn’t sound great. Never thought about that one. It’s a good idea to have some sort of disaster plan for that – so make sure all those school friends and neighbours contacts are in the phone or organiser.

Step 2

Make sure that someone starts organising things at the accident site.

Every single air bag had gone off in the car and the wife was trapped in the car until the door was forced open. So it wasn’t something at the top of her thoughts.

That meant I had to rely on people who I didn’t know. All at the same time as trying to speak with the wife and make sure everyone was OK.

Things like – where does my car go when it’s damaged?

If the police are not there and your car is drivable then it’s not a problem, but make sure you do a good job of taking the other drivers details down and car registration.

Most phones have cameras on them now – take some photos of the accident site and your car damage and the other car. I know it’s not something you think about at the time but it might help in any later disputes.

If the road is busy make sure you look after yourself and don’t wander around the road! You don’t want to survive a car crash and then get knocked down walking around the road.

If the police have been called, they will make sure it’s towed out of the way, as they have contacts with local repair yard and storage companies. They’re great, they understand the pressure you are under and are very efficient at what they do.

It’s fine if it is a local accident but if it’s miles from home it could be a real problem. You need the car near to where you are if it’s not badly damaged or if it is, you need to make sure you can get your personal stuff out. Make sure that you get a contact number for the police (they will be giving it to you but because you are worried about your family you might miss it ) or of the towing company.

In my case the car sounded like a total loss straight away (it was) so the Police said they would get it towed to a local compound and organised everything.

Remember all of this is against a background of worry for your family/friends in the accident. You don’t really focus on the car but you do need some basic contact details to sort things later.

Step 3

Contact your own insurance company.

I did this whilst I was waiting outside A and E for my wife and daughter to arrive in the ambulance.

I was making calls to my Insurers to sort out the mess.

I also phoned my own office to help me sort out the car and especially a hire car.

Remember your own solicitors, they are a good contact to have. They want to help you and if they can’t they have experience of sign posting you to people who can.

So I phoned up the office and they started sorting the hire car and everything else about the accident. That was great and I know it’s something they do for every client we have.

Your local solicitor will do this for you or your local broker will.

If you have bought your insurance over the internet or telephone, then you will have an emergency contact number.

They are very organised will assist you in these things.

They are likely to put you in touch with a local hire car company if that is available and hopefully a local repair garage – remember you can specific which car repair people you want to use – sometimes they have contacts with people a long way away which is not always a good idea. There are plenty of local firms who can help you. You have a choice who you want to use.

Step 4

The relief when they both walked out the ambulance was fantastic which was then shattered by my 7 year old daughter and Wife bursting out into tears. Great the last time the Wife did that was at the Altar and look what that led to.

The Hospital were fantastic, they treated everyone with so much respect and really did look after my Daughter so well. So well in fact that I lost the Wife who was in the adult section of A and E.

Remember to look after yourself or family at this time – I know you will but you are in shock – I was.

Make sure that you sit back and tell the A and E staff what happened as accurately as you can. Tell them how you feel including if you are confused or just don’t know where you are.

Again these people are great, they care about their job and you, but you need to help them do this.

My daughter was fussed over tremendously and it helped a lot to take her mind off what had just happened.

Anyway 4 hours later (yes it was but these Hospitals are busy you know) we are on our way back home with some sore but walking wounded.

Step 5

Contact everyone again.

Last time you did it you were in shock and worried and didn’t know what was going on.

Make sure you have police details if they were called out. If they were not check through the other drivers details you have and contact your usual solicitor to report the case – they will help you whether it is a slight accident or a serious one.

People will be making calls to you, maybe the hire car company or your own insurer. Most hire car companies don’t want to hire a car out until they are definitely sure the accident is not your fault, unless you have a no fault hire clause on your own car policy. That way they can chase the other side for the hire costs.

Either way make sure you are not responsible for any of the costs, as the last thing you want to do it run up a bill whilst you are recovering at home. Again your solicitor can help with this.

You may be wondering can I claim for anything.

It’s about this time that your insurance company will say that they have solicitors who can help you. They will and they have arrangements with solicitors.

If you want to make a claim for any personal injury you have suffered then contact your solicitor.

Unless you are very lucky, these lawyers will be miles from you and it’s very unlikely that you will have used them before.

There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but just be aware that later in the claim you may want to go and see them personally to discuss things with them face to face, and if they are based 200 miles away it’s not easy. The first dealings might be fine but later on, when you get medical reports on your recovery or things like that you might want to meet with them personally to explain how you feel or go through things in detail. It’s not always easy over the phone or by letter.

You are entitled to use your own solicitors, no matter what your insurance company says, and if the accident is not your fault it won’t cost you anything at all to do this.

If in doubt ring your own solicitors and ask them to help – they will be happy to do this for you, or if they don’t they will know someone locally who specialises in this type of thing.