FreeMotorLegal.co.uk

castle96

Free Motor Legal | The free alternative to motor legal protection and legal expenses insurance
so how does this work then? How do they make their money

AdrianC

"How can we do this?

Well, we are simply replicating what the motor legal protection marketplace does. We have a member instead of a policyholder. When the member needs assistance they get the services of a hire company and/or lawyers who will assist you without charging you (just like the motor legal protection policies do).

If they succeed with your claim, the lawyers will be paid their fees and expenses from the insurance company of the party at fault. If they don’t succeed with your case, they have to suck their thumbs, just like the insurer panel firms.  You do not stand liable for costs on a case which does not succeed because legislation provides that you are protected against paying opponent’s costs if you do not succeed with your claim. The only time you would be liable for your own or opponent’s costs would be if you breached the terms of the no win no fee agreement with the lawyers. Such examples would be if your claim was found to be fraudulent or fundamentally dishonest. In this situation, even if you had a motor legal protection policy, they would not agree to indemnify (cover) you for such fees.

How is this free and how does Free Motor Legal benefit?

As we are not being asked to pay lawyers fees, we have no such costs to entertain. Our overheads are low as we are internet based and the services provided to our members (hire cars and lawyers) are outsourced, so we don’t have expensive offices with hundreds of bums on seats in call centres. Our business partners do and have those expenses! We receive commission payments from some of our service providers (actually just the hire companies). We make some money if you have a claim, we just didn’t charge you £30 each year only to just pass you on to a lawyer or hire company like the insurance industry do."

https://www.freemotorlegal.co.uk/how-it-works/

castle96

So it is a kosher jobby then, not a con

AdrianC

I have no idea. I'm only answering your question by pointing you to what it says on the site you linked to.

Ectophile

Essentially, they are sending you the phone number of a no-win-no-fee solicitors firm.

If you don't make any claims, it costs them nothing.  If you use them to make a claim, they will get the costs from the other party.  And like all no-win-no-fee solicitors, they will only take on the case if they think they will win.

Sandtree

Ectophile said:

Essentially, they are sending you the phone number of a no-win-no-fee solicitors firm.

Its more explicit that its one that doesnt charge a success fee.

Legal Expenses cover on Motor insurance (but not other policy types) makes profits even if you give it away. Big Motor insurers basically auction off postcodes sectors, they'll say they have 3,000 customers in WR3 and solicitor firms will bid to represent that area. For the next 12 months every customer who has a non-fault claim living in the WR3 area will be passed to that solicitor. Its been a few years since I have been involved in the process but back in my day insurers would make in the region of £5 per policy gross excluding premiums paid but that was with the full fat cover provided by motor insurers (and doesnt consider any marketting costs).

I've similarly not looked at Free Motor Legal recently but the level of their cover, particularly on low value claims (eg non-injury) was handled, was lower than what a Motor Insurer would give. Note also that this isnt an insurance policy and so you have no right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman if something goes wrong. Their complaints process does state you can go to the Legal Ombudsman but I've no idea what teeth that ombudsman has (the FOS decisions are legally binding on an insurer but, for example, the Parliamentary Ombudsman who oversee the NHS can simply be ignored and have no way of actually enforcing anything)