Legal Expenses Insurance

Funding a Professional Negligence Claim with LEI

Together with the Professional Negligence Lawyers Association (PNLA), we have joined forces with QBE, one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies, to develop a specialist policy designed specifically for people bringing a professional negligence compensation claim. The insurance will cover you for any third party costs order made against you and will even cover some disbursements or expenses incurred by you in making your professional negligence claim.

Under the QBE scheme we are able to issue insurance policies on a delegated basis, without the need to refer to the insurers. This reflects the trust and confidence the insurance industry has in our competence and expertise as professional negligence lawyers and our proven track record of success over the years.

There is no obligation on you to take out LEI, but you should bear in mind that the legal system in England and Wales is based on the “loser pays” principle (unless it is a “Small Claim” worth less than £5,000). This generally means that most of the winner’s legal costs are paid by the loser. Obviously if you win your professional negligence claim this is good news because it means that you should be able to recover most of your legal fees and costs. However if you lose you could be ordered to pay your opponent’s costs; and it is this risk that we advise people to insure against.

The beauty of our bespoke QBE insurance scheme is that the premium is deferred. This means there is nothing to pay upfront, and because the premium is self insured it only has to be paid if you win your professional negligence claim. Furthermore, because of the “loser pays” system we seek recovery of the premium from your opponent.

If the QBE scheme is not suitable for your professional negligence case then we have links with a number of other leading insurers and brokers such as The Judge, so we can source other products if you wish.

If you are interested in taking advantage of our bespoke PNLA/QBE insurance scheme we will be happy to send you full details, including a copy of the policy and an overview of what it covers.