Accidents happen, and when they do, it’s important your insurance supports you in the way you would like. When an incident occurs that is not your fault, leaving you with uninsured losses, Legal Expenses can become an invaluable policy to assist you in recovering these.
Whilst uninsured losses are just one area in which Legal Expenses can support you, our Claims Team see numerous incidents where this cover could be called upon, so here we highlight this particular area of assistance.
Ultimately, should you suffer a loss where part, or all, of it is not covered, you may wish to pursue a third-party for these, where you feel they played a part in causing the loss. Without insurance in place that can support this pursuit and the legal fees involved, you could be left both frustrated and out of pocket.
Examples of Uninsured Loss Scenarios
To help explain the types of scenarios that can occur, we share some real examples below of incidents where Legal Expenses insurance could be of benefit.
- A client was involved in a road traffic accident which wasn’t their fault. The third-party wouldn’t accept liability and with their insurer therefore reluctant to pay, the client wanted to pursue the third-party for their losses, rather than claiming on their own insurance for an incident that wasn’t their fault.
- A client’s commercial vehicle was damaged by a bus; the liability was not in question – the bus driver was to blame. Whilst damage to the vehicle was covered and paid for by insurers, the business had to hire another vehicle whilst theirs was repaired – the costs of which ran into thousands. The client did not have cover for this hire under their own policy, making this an uninsured loss. Given the incident wasn’t their fault, the client wanted to pursue the third-party to recover these costs.
- A commercial client with premises in a basement property was impacted by an Escape of Water from a mains water pipe. The Public Liability excess was around £40,000 and the damage, though significant, was within the excess amount. In this scenario therefore, the damage would be an uninsured loss, which the client would need to cover or pursue the third-party for.
- A client had a gate made up of two pillars outside of their property. A third-party reversed into the gate, bringing down one of the pillars and causing further damage to the structure. Whilst the insurance in place would cover the damage to the one pillar, if the posts were to match, both needed replacing. The client therefore wished to recover the costs from the third-party motorist to cover the cost of replacing the entire gate structure.
- A client’s boundary wall was hit by a third-party motorist. The motorist drove off but a picture obtained of the registration number. The wall was destroyed and the client didn’t have boundary wall cover in their policy, making this an uninsured loss. As such, the client wanted to pursue the third-party driver.
How Legal Expenses Policies Could Help Pursue Uninsured Losses
In these scenarios, a Legal Expenses policy could be called upon to assist in the pursuit of costs for uninsured losses (providing policy terms and conditions are met).
Legal Expenses cover is there to provide cover for the legal costs involved in defending or pursuing (as relevant to the cases above) a claim. It is important to note however that Legal Expenses policies often have a Prospect of Success clause; this means that for any claim you make, for the policy to react, there must be a 51%, or above, chance of success, as determined by the legal representative operating under the policy. In the vast majority of the examples outlined above, it was not a matter of liability being in question, rather support being desired for the costs of taking legal action against the third part who was liable.
How We Can Help
At McClarrons, we take pride in ensuring our clients understand their cover and how it can support them. If you are interested in seeing whether a Legal Expenses or Management Liability policy could benefit you, we’d be very happy to assist. You can contact us on 01653 697055 or at enquiries@mcclarroninsurance.com.
