First and foremost an after the event litigation policy covers the opponent’s costs and own disbursements in civil litigation cases across a wide spectrum of categories of case. It can be purchased for nearly all areas of litigation and is frequently used in both civil and commercial disputes. This type of insurance is usually purchased for cases requiring modest limits of indemnity, through to big ticket, heavyweight litigation requiring over millions of pounds of cover for legal costs. Each case is usually individually assessed within the category of case involved and cases with stronger merits may also attract lower premiums. In some case, if the client is unsuccessful and there is a claim on the policy, the cost of the premium forms part of the claim so that your client does not have to pay. This can be quite a useful negotiating tool once the opponent knows insurance is in place.
1. After the event litigation insurance companies are quite capable of handling the most diverse range of commercial disputes. It helps you to unlock litigation which may otherwise not be pursued because of the risk of losing a case and having to pay the opponent’s costs. Premiums are usually recoverable and proportionate to the risks in the case.
2. This type of insurance may cover contractual disputes, landlord and tenant and property disputes, copyright and intellectual property disputes, banking and financial disputes, partnership disputes, clinical negligence (specialist and separate policy for this area), professional negligence, commercial agency disputes, insolvency related cases and a whole lot more.
3. After the event litigation insurance policies usually involve individual cases which require individual bespoke policies, schemes as well as big risks which require a different approach. The standard cover is for costs incurred after the inception date of the policy up to conclusion of the legal action, however (subject to negotiation) the policy may also cover costs already incurred prior to the policy being taken out. There is usually no upfront premium payment.
4. It also covers the client or insured against what could prove to be substantial costs that the client or insured will be liable for should the legal action prove unsuccessful.
5. Along with recovering your costs and disbursements, the premium can be recovered from the unsuccessful opponent.
After the event litigation insurance companies can provide you with intelligent support and decisions throughout the life of the policy, allowing you to focus on the litigation. This would help to protect a solicitor’s client (usually the claimant, but it could be the defendant in a legal action) when or after that person or entity becomes aware of the need to litigate to protect their interests. This type of insurance is taken out once legal proceedings are contemplated and would give you a strong offering to bring in new clients which would otherwise be wary of pursuing litigation. The insurance will indemnify the insured’s own disbursements and his opponent’s costs and disbursements in the event that the legal action is ultimately discontinued or lost at trial.