Legal Cover through Tesco H/H Insurance

PWE2009

Well I will give a quick run down.....

My wife is in the middle of a tribunal with her ex employer, the 3 day hearing has just finished and it was a reserved judgment until the new year and then quantum after that so early 2010.

We feel as do the legal team that we have won on all accounts, so :T, but my Tesco legal cover is upto £100,000.......upto is the key word..

Claims as follows:

Indirect Sex Discimination
Direct Sex Discrimination
Constructive Dismissal
Breach of contract
Failure to follow statutory procedure
Unlawful deduction of wages

- All which then leads onto future loss of earning and injury to feelings..

They have covered upto £18,000 and I have personally funding the extra to get this far, I know the costs are meant to be apportionate, so that's why Tesco's have stopped at £18,000, this amount was the worst possible scenerio, but Tesco's have closed the cover at that amount.

My view would of been that if say we were awarded £40,000, tesco's would then cover upto £40,000 which is apportionate or say 75% (£30,000) of the amount, I have taken the risk just to get it to the hearing..

Any ideas??? any loop holes to get them to cover anymore???

Astaroth

The Civil Procedure Rules only allow reasonable and proportionate professional fees and expenses to be claimed from the losing side. It is understandable that it is not fair to claim £250,000 of solicitors fees over a £500 whiplash case where the case is simple but liability is disputed.

What reason has Tesco given for withdrawing cover? Are you using your own solicitor or one of their panel solicitors?

PWE2009

Astaroth wrote: »

The Civil Procedure Rules only allow reasonable and proportionate professional fees and expenses to be claimed from the losing side. It is understandable that it is not fair to claim £250,000 of solicitors fees over a £500 whiplash case where the case is simple but liability is disputed.

What reason has Tesco given for withdrawing cover? Are you using your own solicitor or one of their panel solicitors?

We have used a local solictor picked by us.
Tesco's say they have withdrawn funding as our counsel had put a award of £18,000 on the claim, but like I said this was worst case scenerio, now the odds have increased Tesco won't budge, only to say after an award has been made rings us and see what we can do, but my stance is that i have taken the risk out of the situation for them so what is a "reasonable and proportionate"???
If we walk away with £40,000 should they then cover upto that amount?

Astaroth

Why did you stop using your own solicitor? Are you now using another solicitor or self representing or... ?

PWE2009

Astaroth wrote: »

Why did you stop using your own solicitor? Are you now using another solicitor or self representing or... ?

Sorry, we are still using the same solictor as we started with.

Tesco withdrew funding.

That was a bad use of a comma where a full stop should of been..sentance in last post changed now, hopefully to make more sense.

huckster

Hi

I am with Tesco on this. They have covered up to £18k of fees which I think is proportionate to the award you are looking at. I suspect they must operate within certain limits based on past experience.

If you have spoken to the Manager of the relevant department, what have they said exactly?

PWE2009

The supervisor said that on the infomation they have been given that is where the covered stopped, end of, I totally agree there is no point spending £XXXXXXX for a small payout, but if someone is taking th risk and covering the cost that will be down to me in the long run, but if a award is made greater than the insured sum my question is should that not be covered by insurance as it's proportionate to the award?

Not cased closed thats all your getting....
I'm not asking for it unless the award is higher than the insured amount.