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Bindmans employment lawyer Peter Daly comments on legal expenses insurance
Understanding the complexity of legal expenses insurance can be difficult, and this isn’t helped by the often unclear explanations provided by the insurers.
They are allowed to appoint a lawyer from their own panel, but you still have the right to choose your own solicitor once legal proceedings have begun. However, some insurers have clauses that limit their liability to the rate they pay their panel solicitors, which is likely to be below the industry’s agreed rate. Many independent law firms are unable to take on the work at this low rate.
In an article about legal expenses insurance in “Which? Money” magazine Peter Daly said: “Would-be claimants are therefore left with either paying for their own choice of representation or being denied the right to choose their own representation altogether. This contradicts the provisions of the legislation and in many cases the terms of legal expenses policies, which people entered into in good faith.”
The full article was published in the June 2012 issue of “Which? Money” magazine, available on subscription.
For more information please visit www.bindmans.com