K822x
complaint
Mr C complains that DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited won’t pay for him to
use his preferred solicitor in action he’s taking in an employment dispute.
background
Mr C has legal expenses cover under his home insurance policy. DAS underwrites that part
of the policy. In early 2017, Mr C got in touch with DAS about an employment dispute.
Mr C’s claim was initially assessed by a solicitor on DAS’s panel. They said the claim had
less than a 51% chance of success. DAS would only cover claims with a better chance of
winning.
Mr C appointed a barrister to give a second opinion. They thought his claim had a better
prospect of success. Mr C went back to DAS, and it paid his legal costs for the second
opinion. It also agreed to cover his claim, subject to the policy limits.
DAS gave Mr C details of three firms of solicitors on its panel which it said he could use. One
had a conflict of interest so couldn’t act for Mr C, and another was the firm which had said
the claim had less than a 51% chance of winning.
Mr C felt he wasn’t being offered a real choice of solicitors. He wanted to use his own
solicitors, but DAS would only pay £100 an hour towards their costs, and Mr C couldn’t
afford to pay the difference.
After Mr C got in touch with us, one of our investigators looked into the matter. The
investigator initially agreed with Mr C. She thought DAS hadn’t given him a meaningful
choice of solicitor because:
- he could effectively only use one of the panel solicitors DAS had offered him – so this
wasn’t a choice; and
- the £100 DAS was prepared to pay to a solicitor who wasn’t on its panel was nowhere
near enough to cover Mr C’s costs if he went ahead on that basis.
DAS then said Mr C could use another firm of solicitors not on its main panel, at no cost to
him – up to the limit under the policy.
Our investigator said that was fair, because it meant Mr C had a reasonable choice of
solicitors. She also said the £100 hourly limit on the legal costs DAS was prepared to pay if
Mr C went ahead with a solicitor who wouldn’t accept its standard terms was clear in the
policy – and it wouldn’t be fair to require it to pay more than that. But she thought DAS could
have given Mr C the option of another firm of solicitors sooner, and Mr C had been caused
stress and worry as a result of the delay. She recommended DAS pay him £500
compensation to reflect that.
DAS accepted it hadn’t offered another firm of solicitors as early as it could have done, so it
said it would settle this complaint. Mr C didn’t accept the investigator’s conclusions. He still
felt he hadn’t been offered a real choice, and he was unhappy that DAS had only offered him
another firm of solicitors shortly before he was due in court.
Ref: DRN8351268
