Most solicitors will offer ATE insurance after Jackson, DAS says

Legal expenses insurer DAS has said that its own surveys of solicitors have found that the vast majority will continue to offer ATE insurance to personal injury clients after 1 April.

Launching its new post-Jackson policies today, Phil Bellamy, group underwriting manager, said the research showed that around 80 per cent of solicitors would continue to offer ATE for ordinary personal injury cases and 100 per cent for medical negligence.

“Solicitors will continue to use ATE because their clients are still not protected,” he said. “The aim of QOCS was to negate the need for ATE, but it has left some gaping holes.

“We are covering most of the chinks in the QOCS armour, but not any cases that are proved to be fraudulent.”

Bellamy said disbursements were not covered by QOCS, and could cost £400 for a standard RTA case or up to £600 for a standard non-motor case.

Under the new Part 36 rules, claimants who failed to beat defendants’ offers in court also face the threat of having to pay the other side’s costs, up to the limit of their damages.

Bellamy said a further problem for claimants was that QOCS would not protect them from interim costs orders, for example where defendants applied to get cases struck out.

In response, DAS is to relaunch next month its three existing ATE brands - 80e, LawAssist and Amicus - under the single brand of DAS LawAssist.

Premiums will range from £75 per case for portal RTA claims to £350 for non-motor claims.

Bellamy said there would be no fixed prices for medical negligence ATE products, because of the different recoverability rules, and instead they would be set individually in proportion to the costs incurred.

He said that premiums for commercial contract cases would also be set individually, based on the indemnity requested.

“We have the policies, but we don’t know how many people will want to buy them,” Bellamy said.

“Who knows how many firms will go to the wall or be taken over by other firms? What the small claims limit will be is another unknown.

“We would love more people to buy BTE insurance. The vision is great in theory, but flawed in practice. The people who can afford it have already got it.”

Bellamy said the “old world” of ATE insurance was “finishing with a flurry” with staff working overtime and at weekends to deal with applications before the deadline of 1 April .

“We’re doing more business in a week than we did in a month,” he said. “Claimants will be worse off after 1 April, but that is parliament’s wish. It will take years and years for people to understand that, from now on, they won’t keep all their compensation.”