How comprehensive is Comprehensivi when your Company comes up against The Law?
Page 9
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
ANSVVER: in this day and age, not enough.
There have been big changes in the last few years. For one thing, there's a lot more Law. For another, all the costs to do with transport have gone through the roof: vehicle costs, servicing costs, fuel costs, insurance costs, wages costs, the lot.
It's a whole new situation. And it opens up big gaps in your Company's insurance cover — especially where the Law is concerned.
DAS now introduce a new form of insurance, called Motor Legal Protection, specifically to remedy this. It provides cover under 5 specific categories, so you can insure exactly what you want: no more, no less.
Premium: from £15.
From as little as £15 a policy, it gives you £10,000-worth of protection.
Two major areas of this are outside even 'Comprehensive' cover, and not the sort of thing your Broker would normally handle for you.
1. Defence costs where there has been no accident — and hence, normally, no claim under your motor policy. These include criminal prosecutions for traffic, driving or construction and use offences, and appearances before Tribunals for
protecting your Operators: HGV, PSV or rraxi licences.
2. 'Pursuit — that is, where the onus is on YOU to go to Law (and incur all the expense of doing so) to secure your rights — because otherwise you won't get them. There are many of these cases, including problems with garages over buying, selling and servicing vehicles; disputed carriage charges; and compensation for personal injury of drivers and passengers following an accident. Although your insurance broker may assist you to recover hire charges, repairs costs or policy excess, this service rarely includes the cost of legal representation.
Foreign hazards too.
Cover may be extended to include Bail Bonds and the complex and increasingly costly legal hazards of foreign motoring — from the occasional business trip to regular 'TIR. deliveries.
It can apply to any company-owned vehicle, from a single car to a fleet of juggernauts.
It covers your solicitor's fees — those of your own solicitor or DAS will introduce you to one. It covers undefended prosecution, where well-argued pleas in mitigation have an important effect on sentencing.
It covers barristers' fees and Court and
County Courts, Crown Courts, the High Court, — even Courts of Appeal. Win or lose. And, most important, it covers the actual costs, not just the amounts awarded by the Court.
The riskyou run today
For anything beyond the simplest, most straightforward legal consultation, even without a Court or Tribunal appearance, you will be lucky if your legal expenses come to less than £100.
In civil suits, expenses are much higher. As long ago as 1975, the average cost of cases settled at the doors of the Queen's Bench Court were £1577 in London and 1,1130 in the provinces. DAS claims experience shows that these cases cost very much more today.
Can you afford to risk this kind of loss?