What is legal expenses insurance?
Legal expenses insurance is designed to offer protection to businesses who find themselves facing a legal dispute. Legal expenses insurance typically covers the costs associated with both defending or pursuing a legal issue.
Many legal expenses insurance policies also include provision for access to legal advice.
There are two different types of legal expenses policy – those taken out before a legal issue arises (before the event or BTE) and those taken out after a legal issue has occurred (after the event or ATE).
What does legal expenses insurance cover?
Legal expenses insurance policies will typically provide cover for the following areas:
- The costs of legal action – whether you are defending or pursuing a legal issue, a legal expenses policy will cover costs associated with legal representation and going to court
- Access to legal advice – something which can be particularly valuable to smaller business who may not have in house legal teams. Seeking legal advice can help you determine what action you should take and how to act in accordance with the law.
Legal issues can be expensive to deal with if you do not have any insurance cover in place. Having a legal expenses insurance policy can provide your business with the peace of mind that if you should face a legal dispute the costs to your business are covered.
What level of cover does legal expenses insurance cover provide?
This will very much depend on the type of legal expenses insurance policy that you take out.
But most legal expenses policies will have a limit for the amount of cover they will provide in pursuit of a legal claim. For example, your policy may have a limit of up to £100,000 per claim. But this limit may be higher or lower depending on your exact policy.
It is therefore important to discuss your needs with your insurance broker or do your own research and fully understand the policy you are buying, the level of cover you require and level of cover the policy you are looking to buy provides.
What is the difference between commercial motor legal expenses and commercial legal expenses?
You can add legal expenses insurance cover to a variety of insurance covers; from your home insurance policy, small business insurance policy or commercial motor insurance policy.
Each type of legal expenses policy will provide cover for different types of legal dispute. It’s always vital to read your policy wording and ensure you have the correct cover in place for the type of legal risks your business faces.
What is a commercial legal expenses policy?
Commercial legal expenses policies are designed to meet the needs of SME’s or business owners through the provision of legal advice and covering the costs of legal representation and action.
Commercial legal expenses policies will typically cover legal issues such as:
- Employment disputes
- Tax and VAT investigations
- Contract disputes
Commercial legal expenses policies won’t cover legal expenses relating to a motor accident involving a company owned vehicle.
What is a commercial motor legal expenses policy?
If you operate a fleet of vehicles, then you know that the risks your business faces will be very different to those of other small businesses. Driving is after all one of the most dangerous occupations anyone can be engaged in.
Therefore, it will be important that your business has a specific motor legal expenses insurance policy to cover these very unique risks. You may require this policy in addition to a commercial legal expenses policy. Chat to your insurance broker about the risks your business faces to determine if this is the case.
A commercial motor legal expenses policy will typically provide cover linked to accidents where your driver was not at fault. It will typically cover costs associated with losses which aren’t covered by your main commercial motor policy:
- Personal injury
- Loss of income
- Damage to goods in the vehicle
At Anthony Jones we invest a lot of time in getting to know our customers and their businesses and providing tailored insurance solutions. We work hard to support our customers with risk management advice and believe this to be an invaluable element of the service we provide. Whether you require business insurance or commercial motor insurance solutions get in touch with us today to find out how we can help your business.
