{"id":5958,"date":"2011-02-24T15:01:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T14:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/?p=5958"},"modified":"2011-02-24T16:40:42","modified_gmt":"2011-02-24T15:40:42","slug":"legal-expense-insurance-legal-protection-%e2%80%93-the-sorry-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk\/injury-lawyers-blog\/2011\/02\/24\/legal-expense-insurance-legal-protection-%e2%80%93-the-sorry-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal Expense Insurance \/ Legal Protection \u2013 The Sorry Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If there\u2019s one thing we love here at The Injury Lawyers<\/a>, it\u2019s making sure accident victims get access to the maximum compensation<\/a> they are entitled to claim for with the minimum of hassle and fuss for the claimant. Claiming for compensation is a common part of everyday life now \u2013 unfortunately, there are those out there ready and willing to profit from your claim in the wrong way \u2013 and this, we do not like<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Sure \u2013 we are a business. At the end of the day, we do turn a profit. But we always promise to go the extra mile with our clients by updating them far more frequently than most other firms<\/em><\/strong>, and spending more on our cases for a better outcome. So, who am I talking about?<\/p>\n

Insurance Companies<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a driver, check your motor insurance policy to see if you have the \u201cbenefit\u201d of Legal Expense Insurance<\/em><\/strong> or \u201cLegal Protection<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d This is an extra on your policy which is normally either provided out of courtesy, or for a small annual fee. Your insurers will tell you that you are fully covered if you have an accident. Sounds great, right?
\n<\/p>\n

Not so great when you hear the truth:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Legal Expense Insurance, quite frankly, in my opinion, is a scam<\/em><\/strong>. In many cases, if you have an accident, all your insurance company does is sell your claim on to the high paying law firm<\/em><\/strong> from their panel of solicitors. This fee can be anywhere up to \u00a3800 (I recall one recently which had \u00a3700 + VAT in the paperwork). So, where does this huge fee come from? It can only come from one of two places \u2013 either your compensation, or the running costs for your claim.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The referral fee paid out is not recoverable from the other side – So the solicitor that buys your case is paying this fee out of their own pocket. As a business, they must turn a profit to handle your claim: So wasting \u00a3800 on buying your case doesn\u2019t leave a lot of money to spend on your case.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The easy way to think about it is this:<\/p>\n

Legal Expense Insurance Solicitor<\/span><\/em><\/strong>: buys your case for \u00a3800 and has \u00a3800 less to spend on your case<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Independent Injury Lawyer<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong>: pays no one for your case and has \u00a3800 more to spend on your case<\/span>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The common complaints we hear from people (and yes, we do get a ridiculous amount of calls from victims who have gone down this route and are not happy) are normally the same:<\/p>\n