Members - Legal Expenses

Legal ExpensesChamber Legal Expenses & Legal Advice Line

Any business lucky enough not to have been embroiled in a legal dispute can count themselves lucky. No matter how well you plan and manage your business you never know when you are going to face unexpected, expensive legal fees.

In 2005/2006 there were over 115,000 applications to employment tribunals with the average award for unfair dismissal being £8,679. The average award for race discrimination was £30,361, sex discrimination £10,807 and disability discrimination £19,360.

In addition to employment related disputes, one in ten businesses will be subject to an Inland Revenue Investigation each year. Professional fees would need to be incurred in order to prepare for such an investigation.

Your Chamber of Commerce has teamed up with Composite Legal Expenses to provide as part of your membership a free Legal Expenses Insurance policy and Legal Advice Line.  As a member business you have over £670,000* worth of professional fees each year to pay for a solicitor or other professional to represent your business in each of the areas covered by the policy.

Your business has access to up to £65,000 worth of fees each year in the following areas:

  • Employment Disputes
    The cost of defending actions brought by employees including unfair dismissal & discrimination claims.
  • Employment Awards
    Pays the employment tribunal compensation award in the event of failure in your employment representation.
  • Prosecution Defence
    Cost of defending a prosecution for an offence relating to your business activities including the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974.
  • Tax, VAT, PAYE and NIC Investigations
    One in ten businesses will be subject to an Inland Revenue Investigation each year, cover is provided to pay professional fees resulting from these investigations.
  • License Protection
    Where your business is dependent on holding a statutory license in order to trade, cover is provided for appeal costs.
  • Data Protection Act
    Cost of defending civil proceedings bought against your business under the Data Protection Act.
  • Property Legal Protection
    Enables your business to pursue legal rights arising from negligent acts of others affecting your property.
  • Landlord Disputes
    Representing your interests in disputes with landlords over the business lease or tenancy agreement.

Plus:

  • Jury Service Allowance
    Up to £1000 per claim to compensate for the loss of an employee attending court or tribunal.
  • 24/365 Legal Advice Line
    Solicitors and other professionals on hand to provide a telephone based legal advisory service.

And don’t forget these helpful employee benefits as well:

  • Personal injury (£75,000)
    Legal Expenses cover is included for all employees and their partners to pursue compensation following a personal injury outside of the workplace where a third party is at fault.
  • Business Motoring (£75,000)
    Pursuing uninsured losses following a non-fault road traffic accident including excess recovery, car hire and credit repair.
  • Consumer Disputes* (£1000)
    Up to £1000 worth of professional fees following a personal dispute arising from the purchase or sale of faulty goods or services.

In the event of a dispute it is essential that you contact the Chamber Legal Advice Line at the earliest opportunity. Delaying notifying the insurers could jeopardise your ability to be covered.

The Advice Line will guide you through the legal process and prevent issues from escalating in the first place. To contact the Chamber Legal Advice Line please call 0870 220 8515.

*The £670,000 is made up of eight heads of cover each limited to £65,000 of professional fees each year and Personal Injury & Business Motoring at £75,000 each. Members also have the additional £1000 worth of cover each year for personal Consumer Disputes as well as the Jury Service Allowance of £1000 per claim.

Please refer to the Chamber Legal Expenses policy wording to understand all policy conditions. Click here to view.

Member case studies

Case Study 1
A firm completed a recruitment process to employ a new member of staff. Afterwards an unsuccessful candidate filed a claim for discrimination. The tribunal advised the claim was unfounded but because of the nature of the allegation the case had to be heard. The claim was successfully defended by one of our solicitors. But, costs of £11,536 were incurred - costs the firm would have had to find if they were not covered by Chamber Legal Expenses. And they hadn't done a single thing wrong!

Case Study 2
Another firm was the subject of a normal Inland Revenue investigation. In order to deal with it, specialist tax experts were instructed to defend the matter incurring costs of £6715. Costs the firm would have had to pay had they not had Chamber Legal Expenses.

Case Study 3
Their landlord when renewing their lease served a firm notice of a ‘schedule to repair and dilapidations'. The sum claimed by the landlord was around £100,000. Our solicitors were instructed to attempt to reject the claim and successfully reduced the costs by over 75%. Fees were incurred of £14,000 which was paid by us because the firm was covered by Chamber Legal Expenses.

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