After the Event Insurance

“After the Event Insurance” covers costs you will incur along your  Compensation journey for people or institutions that do not work on a “no-win no-fee” arrangement like TLL.  Examples of these include the cost of a medical report which outlines your injuries so Trafford Law may value your injuries; the cost of issuing your claim at Court if the otherside does not settle the matter by negotiation; and also the cost of barristers to actually represent you at Court hearings if and when necessary.

Additionally, if you lose your case and it is not protected by “Qualified One Way Costs Shifting” (these are typically cases which are not brought under The Road Traffic Act (1988); The Occupiers Liability Act (1957); the Highways Act (1980); or employees’ rights legislation) you may be ordered to pay your opponent’s costs and disbursements and an ATE insurance policy will cover this eventuality also.

It may be that you already have insurance cover, sometimes called “legal expenses insurance” which you may be able to utilise for your personal injury claim and you should look at your existing insurance such as your household, motor policies or possibly through any trade union membership.  If you can find such insurance contained within your existing policy, you should forward your policy documents to me immediately and Trafford Law will ascertain whether it is possible to utilise this policy for your claim.

If you have checked any existing insurance documentation for “Legal Expenses Insurance” but you have none, Trafford Law Ltd [“TLL] can arrange for After the Event insurance for you.

If you do not have legal expenses insurance already and you choose not to take out After the Event insurance, then Trafford Law would have to ask you for monies to cover these disbursements before they are incurred.

Although we have a business relationship with insurance companies who can offer ATE insurance for your claim, we are not making a personal recommendation in respect of any insurance product we offer. We are not under a contractual obligation to conduct insurance distribution exclusively with any products which we offer.  We do not give advice to you to use them on the basis of a fair and personal analysis.  The products we offer are block-policies.

There may be other products in the market place you may prefer to use rather than those which Trafford Law can offer.  If so, please let us know the details of that ATE insurance policy you wish to use.

Trafford Law gains nothing should you take out the insurance policy with any insurance company whom we suggest.  We don’t get commission for proposing the product or setting it up.  If you win, the premium is deducted from your compensation at the end of the claim; if you lose you don’t pay a penny, not to us, not to the insurance company because if you lose, no premium is payable.

We only offer ATE policies to our clients with eligible cases conducted on a CFA basis. Any insurance company with whom we do business is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

We carry out an annual review of the Insurance companies with whom we have a relationship so we can be satisfied that it meets the needs of our clients.

Suitability

To consider if a policy is suitable for a claim we will have:

• Considered the information we already hold about you and your claim for damages.
• Obtained details from you of any relevant existing insurance;
• Identified your requirement to be protected against the risk of having to pay your opponent’s costs if you fail to beat an offer of settlement or your own disbursements if you should lose your claim.
• Explained to you the information you need to disclose to us;
• Assessed that the level of cover is sufficient for the risks that you wish to insure;
• Considered the relevance of any exclusions, limitations or conditions, and advised you that there are no excesses payable under the policy.

Cost

The cost of ATE insurance differs depending on the type of claim you will be making and we will need to consider all aspects of your claim before we are able to ascertain the cost of ATE insurance for you.

Conduct of Business Rules for Insurance Distribution

Joanna Trafford is the Insurance Distribution officer for Trafford Law and can be contacted on joannatrafford@traffordlaw.co.uk.  Trafford Law does not manufacture insurance policies.

Regulatory Status

Trafford Law are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority [“FCA”], but we are included on the register maintained by the FCA so that we can carry on insurance distribution activity, which is broadly the advising on, selling and administration of insurance contracts. This part of our business, including arrangements for complaints or redress if something goes wrong, is regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The register can be accessed via the FCA website at www.fca.org.uk/register.

Complaints Handling

The nature of our regulated activity of providing ATE insurance policies which are ancillary to our business is limited in scope ie. we can only carry on insurance distribution activities limited to those not prohibited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority Financial Services (Scope) Rules 2001.

The Law Society is a designated professional body of the purposes of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but responsibility for regulation and complaints handling has been separated from the Law Society’s representative functions. Should you have a complaint or wish to seek redress regarding our insurance distribution activities then you should contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority, (The Cube, 199 Wharfside Street, Birmingham B1 1RN email a complaint form to report@sra.org.uk) and the Legal Ombudsman PO Box 6806 Wolverhampton WV1 9WJ Telephone: 0300 555 0333 Email address: enquiries@legalombudsman.org.uk Website: www.legalombudsman.org.uk The Solicitors Regulation Authority is the independent regulatory body of the Law Society and the Legal Ombudsman is the independent complaints handling body.