Policyholder Information
Get Legal Advice
Your Legal Protection Group policy may offer you access to a legal or tax advice service, which is normally available by telephone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
To use the service, call the number shown on your policy document and quote your policy number.
Making a Claim
To report a claim under your legal protection or assistance insurance policies, please call the dedicated claims reporting number shown on your policy document.
The Claims Helpline is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For some claims, including employment, contract, property and tax matters, you may need to provide supporting information and complete a claim form.
Please give us as much information as possible when reporting a claim and keep in mind that you can discuss any legal or tax problem with the legal and tax advice services, even if you don’t make a claim for legal or accountancy costs.
You must report any claim during the period of your insurance, as policies are ‘claims made’.
Please do not instruct a solicitor or other adviser without speaking to us first of all, as we will not pay any costs incurred without our prior agreement.
If necessary, we will help you to choose a suitable lawyer or other qualified person to assist you. For more information on appointing a lawyer, please see choice of lawyer below.
Choice of Lawyer
Should you need to use your policy to pay for a lawyer to assist you, it is important that the lawyer is carefully chosen and for this reason, Legal Protection Group works with a panel of solicitors and barristers who have been carefully selected by us to ensure that you receive the best possible help.
Independent research* has shown that policyholders are often better off by using a recommended law firm and the reasons for this include:
- The lawyer will be familiar with the cover provided by your policy.
- The lawyer will already have a working relationship with us and so will be given wider authority to handle your claim.
- The lawyer will be suitably qualified and experienced to deal with the legal issue.
- The lawyer will have efficient systems which will reduce costs and therefore make your indemnity limit go further.
Therefore, we nearly always arrange the appointment of a lawyer recommended by us. However, under certain circumstances (as set out in the Insurance Companies (Legal Expenses Insurance) regulations 1990), we may agree to appoint a lawyer chosen by you. If this happens, your lawyer must agree to represent you in accordance with our Standard Adviser’s Terms of Appointment and our hourly charging rates and we will pay your lawyer the same as we would have paid our recommended lawyer.
A copy of our Standard Adviser’s Terms of Appointment and hourly charging rates is available on request.
Should you have any queries regarding the appointment of a lawyer or other expert, please call the Claims Helpline on 0344 840 6345.
*SEO Economic Research/University of Amsterdam.
How to Complain
We are committed to providing you with excellent customer service, but we accept that occasionally things go wrong. We take all complaints seriously and have a commitment across our business to treat all customers fairly. Where we have made a mistake, we want to put things right quickly.
If you are not happy with the standard of service provided by us, please let us know:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0333 700 1040 (lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm)
Post: Customer Service Department, Legal Protection Group Limited, 8 Pinkers Court, Briarland Office Park, Gloucester Road, Rudgeway, Bristol, BS35 3QH
As soon as a complaint is received:
- All complaints will be acknowledged in writing within five business days of receipt. If the complaint can be resolved within five business days, our letter will also outline the result of our investigation.
- If our investigation is not resolved within five business days, we will aim to respond within four weeks of receiving the complaint.
- If the complaint is about another party, such as a law firm who is acting for an insured person, we will refer details of the complaint to that other party and confirm this course of action to you in writing.
After we have investigated the complaint:
- We will write to you immediately notifying you of the outcome of our investigation. We will also advise that if you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service within the next six months.
If we cannot resolve the complaint within 4 weeks:
- We will write to you and inform you that our investigation is continuing, giving the reasons for the delay and a date by which we expect to be able to contact you again.
If we cannot resolve the complaint within 8 weeks:
- We will inform you of the reasons for the further delay and advise that if you are not satisfied with our progress then you may refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service within the next six months.
- If you do not refer your complaint within the six month period, the insurer will not permit the Financial Ombudsman Service to consider your complaint and will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances such as where they believe that the delay in notifying your complaint was as a result of exceptional circumstances.
The Financial Ombudsman Service can be contacted:
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0800 023 4567 (free from a landline) or 0300 123 9123 (free from some mobile phones)
Post: Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR
You can also visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk and follow the guidelines on how to complain and to also check their eligibility criteria.
Important: This complaints notification procedure does not affect your right to take legal action.