By Andy Lyalle, Senior Business Development Manager
(Estimated reading time: 3 minutes 0 seconds)
In a restaurant, the meal you order depends on how hungry you are, the time of day and your budget – with the menu laid out accordingly. Here at Temple, we think getting After the Event (ATE) insurance policy to cover your client’s adverse costs and their own disbursements should be similarly easy – and have come up with a simple and flexible process. This means, as Burger King used to say, you can ‘have it your way’. Find out more below.
When a solicitor applies for ATE insurance for their client, the cover they get and its cost depend on several factors – the type of case, whether the premium is recoverable, the level of indemnity required, stage that the case has reached and if security for costs is required.
We have created three routes to obtaining ATE insurance cover and it will often be possible for a law firm to move from one process to another or to have more than one. These three new pathways to commercial ATE insurance cover are Solo, Concierge and Espresso.
‘Solo’ starts with a solicitor contacting us by phone or e-mail and we will let them know if we think that prima facie, this is a case that we are interested in and will look at with a view to offering terms. We will also give an indicative, non-binding premium estimate to discuss with their client.
If the client wishes to proceed, then the solicitor completes an individual proposal form and sends it to us to be reviewed by an underwriter. If the merits of the case are as required by the underwriter and the insurance premium likely to be proportionate in relation to the damages sought an offer of insurance terms will be made and the solicitor can refer to their client.
At the opposite end is ‘Espresso’. A delegated scheme can be for a whole non-injury dispute resolution team or for a particular segment within that team e.g. defamation, professional negligence or insolvency. Except for a few triggers, the solicitor will have authority to decide on the merits of the case and then, using the Temple Online Policy System, issue the insurance policy themselves. Quick and strong, it gets the case started and moving.
There is also a middle ground – ‘Concierge’. We agree a short, on-line, questionnaire with the firm for their exclusive use. As the process in on-line and focussed on the particular cases being handled by the firm, the underwriter instantly gets the right information to enable the case to be assessed quickly and the case handler at the firm doesn’t have to repeat the same generic information every time they want cover, saving valuable time and cost.
It may be that a ‘Solo’ law firm will start to generate a greater volume of cases or a particular department within the firm may do the same. They may then wish to move onto the ‘Concierge’ or ‘Espresso’ process for getting their cases insured. Also, a firm using ‘Concierge’ or ‘Espresso’ may not hit projected volume and wish to move to a ‘Solo’ offering.
To sum up, the process or pathway to getting your cases insured can be as important as the ATE insurance itself that you ultimately secure for your client.
We aim to work with our existing and prospective solicitor partners and put together the best process possible for getting your cases insured. As always, we would like to hear from you so that we can discuss what you do and agree the best way to get your cases insured. If you would like to discuss further, please email or call me on 07936 903767
Andy Lyalle
Senior Business Development Manager
Andy Lyalle
Andy has worn many hats in the legal services sector for nearly thirty years and is our Senior Business Development Manager. Based in our Bristol office but working nationwide, Andy enjoys meeting existing and potential clients ready to discuss our ATE insurance and disbursement funding products.
He will listen to your requirements and work with you and liaise with our team to ensure we add value to your business – develop opportunities, overcoming obstacles and steering you in the right direction are Andy’s stock-in-trade.
Working predominantly in the Commercial Dispute Resolution team, Andy is also pleased to talk to you about our BTE Employment Protection Schemes plus our personal injury and clinical negligence ATE Insurance and disbursement funding products.
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