We put together a straightforward guide to some of the words and phrases that you may come across in your dealings with ARAG.
We want to communicate with you in a way that is as clear and concise as possible.
Legal expenses insurance and the surrounding legal issues can be complex, but we’ll do our best to keep the language as straightforward as possible.
We put together a simple guide to some of the words and phrases that you may come across in your dealings with ARAG.
We obviously cannot include every single term here so, if we happen to use any other language that you don’t understand, please ask us to explain. You can also look up other terms in our glossary.
Let’s start with the name: We call it legal expenses insurance (LEI),but you may also hear it referred to as legal protection or something similar.
As we don’t sell direct to customers, you will have bought our product(s) through another insurer or an insurance broker, who will have issued you with an LEI policy as part of your overall cover. We refer to them as the primary insurer.
The document describing your cover in detail is usually called a policy wording. You may also have a policy schedule showing the optional parts of your policy that are active.
LEI can be more complicated than other general insurance products, such as car or home cover, so we suggest that you read your policy documents before contacting us, as it will help you to understand the cover that you have in place.
In many cases, your first contact will be through our legal advice helpline which provides you with free, unlimited access to talk to a legal advisor, over the phone. They will try to help you reach an early resolution to your legal problem.
Many of our customers also have access to our online legal services platforms that offer a wide range of guides, videos and interactive document building tools for business owners, landlords and families.
If the legal advice helpline cannot help you to resolve your issue, then you may need to make a claim on your legal expenses policy.
If you have a claim arising from a road traffic accident (RTA), you should always report it through your primary insurer. Otherwise, the quickest and easiest way is to report a claim using our online claim form, though you can also do it over the phone, if you prefer.
This is the process we go through to confirm your cover. It has three key steps:
1. Cover check
As your policy will have been issued by your primary insurer, we may need to contact them to check the precise details of your policy. Alternatively, you can send us a copy of your policy wording and schedule, if you have them to hand, which may speed up the process.
2. Validating your claim
One of our specialist claims handlers will make an initial assessment to ensure that the specific dispute is covered by your policy. We may refer to ‘policy exclusions’ which are specific areas that are not covered by your policy.
3. Prospects assessment
If your claim is covered, we’ll pass your case to a suitably qualified lawyer. Their first job is to assess the prospects of success of winning your legal case and they’ll present their findings as soon as possible.
For most claims, it’s a condition of cover that the lawyer believes you have a greater chance of winning your case than losing it. This is a standard condition for almost all LEI policies, but it’s important to understand why:
If the lawyer decides that your case does not have sufficient prospects of success, they will explain the reasons to you and provide advice about any other ways there may be to resolve your dispute.
The prospects of success in a case can change over the course of your claim, so your lawyer will reassess them regularly. For example, if new evidence comes to light or a judge makes a decision against you, the prospects of success could go down.
Like most insurance policies, there is a limit to the total sum that is covered in each claim. This is called the limit of indemnity. Legal expenses insurance is intended to cover the costs of legal and other professionals supporting you with your case and our policies are designed with limits of indemnity that will cover the costs in most legal claims.
Have more questions about LEI? Contact us here.
