Litigation insurance cover for commercial arbitrations
As experienced commercial litigators know, arbitration offers a discrete dispute resolution alternative to court proceedings. For those clients who might prefer to issue a claim, they may well find themselves bound by a contractual arbitration clause or in a position where they have to respond to a request for arbitration.
The Temple Advantage for commercial arbitration cover
The good news is that Temple’s market leading Litigation Insurance (ATE) is available to insure anyone involved in an arbitration, whether as a claimant or a defendant.
- Our ‘Arbitrate’ Litigation Insurance provides cover against the risk that if you are unsuccessful in an arbitration you will have to pay your opponent’s costs and not be able to recover your own disbursements.
- ‘Arbitrate’ also provides cover for the Arbitrator’s fees and venue hire.
- Premiums are competitive, deferred until settlement or the conclusion of the arbitration and contingent upon success.
For clients we insure we can also offer disbursement funding. For the latest competitive rates, please contact Temple. We can fund arbitrator’s fees, venue hire, experts’ fees and other disbursements.
How we work with you
Our underwriting process is simple and straightforward. We’ll send you a proposal form, you tell our experienced underwriters all about the case and if it’s the right case for us we will offer terms. We will then work with you during the life of the arbitration. If things don’t work out, our claims process is equally simple and straightforward.
We can offer cover of £2m and more for the right case.
Your questions answered
The process is straightforward. Complete a Proposal Form and send it to us together with any key documents that will help our underwriters assess the case. We may ask you some questions about the case or ask to see some more documents. Once we are happy that the case enjoys 60% chances of success, we will send out a formal quote. All you need to do is accept the quote and your client will be on cover.
Premiums do vary depending on the type of case and the amount of cover you need to be able to pay your client’s own disbursements and the other side’s costs if the claim fails. Generally, premiums are between 15% and 50% of the amount of cover. Early on in the underwriting process we will give you a non-binding indication of the premium so you and your client can take an early decision about insurance.
You will need our consent to issue proceedings and to make, reject and accept offers. However, we take care and time to assess cases at the outset so we do not have to re-consider the case each time you come to us to ask for our consent. We aim to “stay the course” but, as can happen, if the case changes and becomes more difficult, we have to keep a careful watch. We work with good lawyers with the right experience and always recognize that they are best placed to reach the right decisions. We will give you as much latitude as possible when negotiating.
You can always ask for a delegated authority scheme and become a coverholder. As a coverholder you will have control over your cases and will not need to ask for consent as the case progresses. We still ask you to contact us if things go wrong but the aim is to let you assess the cases from the outset, insure and then run them.
Contact our experts
For more information please contact Matthew Pascall on 01483 514428 or email .
Matthew Pascall
Legal Director – Head of Commercial
Matthew Pascall
Matthew was called to the Bar in 1984 and joined Guildford Chambers two years later. Spending more than 30 years in practice there, he was listed as a Legal 500 Tier One barrister.
He joined the commercial team at Temple Legal Protection as Senior Underwriting Manager in 2017.
Matthew was appointed to Temple’s Board in December 2022 as Legal Director and Head of Commercial.
His knowledge of the commercial legal sector and litigation practice is invaluable to the business and our clients, providing specialist experience to lead the commercial litigation insurance team.
