Legal expenses

Definitions which only apply to this section:

We, our, us: DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited.

Representative: The lawyer, or other suitably-qualified person, who we have appointed to act for you in line with the conditions of this section.

Legal costs: All reasonable and necessary costs charged by the representative on a standard basis, or in accordance with the predictable costs scheme, if this is appropriate. It also includes the opponent’s costs in civil cases if you have to pay them or if you pay them with our agreement.

Date of the occurence: The date of occurrence is the date of the event that leads to a claim. If there is more than one event arising at different times but from the same originating cause, the date of occurrence is the date of the first of these events.

Insured incident: An event that leads to a claim being made under this section of your policy.

WHAT YOU ARE COVERED FOR

Legal expenses (applicable to all policies)

Up to £25,000 for all necessary legal costs incurred by the representative following an event which causes the death of, or bodily injury to, you. This is the most we will pay for all claims resulting from one or more events arising at the same time or from the same originating cause.

We agree to provide legal expenses cover, keeping to the conditions and exclusions, as long as:

• It is always more likely than not that you will recover damages (or obtain any other legal remedy which we have agreed to) or make a successful defence. Before we pay legal costs for appeals, we must agree that it is always more likely than not that an appeal will be successful;
• If you use a representative, we will pay the legal costs for this;
• any legal proceedings will be dealt with by a court or other body which we agree to; and
• the date of occurrence of the insured incident must be during the period of insurance.

WHAT YOU ARE NOT COVERED FOR

As well as the general conditions, the following exclusions and conditions apply:

1. The failure to notify us of the insured incident within a reasonable time of it happening, and where this failure adversely affects the prospect of successfully recovering damages (or getting any other legal remedy that we have agreed to) or of making a successful defence.
2. Any legal costs incurred before we agree to pay them.
3. Any claim relating to the following:
   • Any illness which develops gradually or is not caused by a specific or sudden accident
   • You driving a motor vehicle for which you do not have valid motor insurance
   • Judicial review, coroner’s inquest or fatal accident inquiry
4. Defending your legal rights (but defending a counter claim is covered.)
5. Any disagreement with us that is not in condition 17 of this section.
6. Any legal action you take which we or the representative have not agreed to or where you do anything that has a negative effect on us or the representative.
7. Any legal action against the travel agent, tour operator, carrier or any of the insurers listed on the Customer service page.
8. Fines, penalties, compensation or damages which you are ordered to pay by a court or other authority.
9. Any legal costs that you have to pay under a contingency fee arrangement (a contingency fee arrangement is when the lawyer takes a percentage of the damages as the fee).
10. Any insured incident intentionally brought about by you.
11. Any claim relating to your alleged dishonesty or alleged violent behaviour. Also, any claim that is fraudulent or exaggerated.
12. Any claim relating to written or spoken comments which damage your reputation.
13. An incident or matter arising before the start of cover under this section.

CONDITIONS

You must do the following:

1. You must give us full and truthful details by phone or in writing of any claim as soon as possible and give us any information we need.
2. We can take over and conduct, in your name, any claim or legal proceedings at any time. We can negotiate any claim on your behalf.
3. You are free to choose a representative (by sending us a suitably qualified person’s name and address) if:
   1. we agree to start legal proceedings and it becomes necessary for a lawyer to represent your interests in those proceedings; or
   2. there is a conflict of interest.
4. In all circumstances (except those in 3 above), we are free to choose a representative.
5. Any representative will be appointed by us to represent you according to our standard terms of appointment, which may include a ‘no win, no fee’ agreement. The representative must co-operate fully with us at all times.
6. We will have direct contact with the representative.
7. You must co-operate fully with us and the representative, and must keep us up to date with the progress of the claim.
8. You must give the representative any instructions that we ask for.
9. You must tell us if anyone offers to settle the claim.
10. If you do not accept a reasonable offer to settle a claim, we may refuse to pay further legal costs.
11. You must not negotiate or agree to settle a claim without our written approval.
12. We may decide to pay you the amount of damages that you are claiming or that is being claimed against you instead of starting or continuing legal proceedings.
13. If we ask, you must tell the representative to have legal costs taxed, assessed or audited.
14. You must take every step to recover any legal costs that we have to pay and must pay us any legal costs that you recover.
15. If your representative refuses to continue acting for you with good reason or if you dismiss your representative without good reason, the cover we provide will end immediately, unless we agree to appoint another representative.
16. If you settle a claim or withdraw it without our agreement, or do not give suitable instructions to your representative, the cover we provide will end immediately and we will be entitled to reclaim any legal costs we have paid.
17. If there is a disagreement about the way we handle a claim that is not resolved through our internal complaints procedure, you can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service for help.
18. We may ask you to get (at your own expense) an opinion from a lawyer, or other suitably qualified person chosen by you and us about whether a claim or proceedings will be successful. If the chosen person believes that it is more likely than not you will recover damages (or reach a solution that we have agreed to) or make a successful defence, we will pay the cost of getting the opinion.
19. We will not pay any claim covered under any other policy, or any claim that would have been covered by any other policy if this policy did not exist.
20. You must keep to the terms and conditions of this section.
21. You must try to prevent anything happening that may cause a claim.
22. You must take reasonable steps to keep any amount we have to pay as low as possible.