Terms of Business
The following Terms of Business set out what you can expect from us and what we expect from you when agreeing to handle your application for legal insurance. This document contains important information. Please read it carefully.
References to “we”, “us” and “our” are references to Alternative Insurance Brokers Ltd t/a Alternative ATE and Funding. References to “you”, “your” and “yours” are references to you and your legal representative. References to “provider” or “providers” are references to both legal expenses’ insurers and litigation funding companies. References to “litigation” include arbitration or other legal proceedings.
This document supersedes any agreement with us previously in force in relation to this application, with the exception of any Non-Disclosure Agreement or Confidentiality Agreement signed by us. Please contact us immediately if there is anything in these Terms of Business that you do not understand or with which you disagree.
Our Company
We conduct business through Alternative Insurance Brokers Ltd t/a Alternative ATE and Funding Our Registered Office is 4 Station Road Cheadle Hulme Cheadle SK8 5AE. Our company Registration Number is 8253536. Our FCA Reference Number is 602443
Our Regulation
Alternative Insurance Brokers Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) to carry out insurance mediation activities. You may check our details with the FCA. Our FCA number is 602443.
Alternative Insurance Brokers Ltd t/a Alternative ATE and Funding is regulated and authorised to provide advice on legal expenses insurance products. Where we provide a personal recommendation in relation to your insurance options, we will provide you with a written statement of our understanding of your insurance demands and needs, based upon the information provided before concluding an insurance contract.
If we recommend an insurance policy to you, we will confirm why we believe the proposed cover to be suitable in satisfying your insurance requirements. It is important that you tell us if any of the information contained within such a statement is incorrect.
Our Relationship with You
We are a broker who will act on your behalf to source litigation insurance (sometimes referred to as After the Event Insurance or ATE insurance) to insure legal expenses incurred in connection with a legal dispute. We can also arrange litigation funding in order to finance legal expenses incurred in connection with a legal dispute.
Our Approach to Market for Litigation Insurance
We will tell you which providers we will be approaching. In order to proceed in a timely fashion, we may proceed to contact providers immediately upon receiving these signed Terms of Business and confirm to you the providers which we have approached thereafter. If you require confirmation of the identity of the providers in advance, please inform us by way of the covering correspondence.
If there are any providers that we have not approached with your application, but that you feel should be considered, please let us know as soon as possible.
We will generally seek to simultaneously introduce the proposal to several providers on your behalf. Whilst we may not approach every provider in the market with your application, we will typically consider what we reasonably believe to be a sufficiently large number of products to be representative of the whole market. However, depending on the application and the prospects of obtaining a viable proposal from the market, we may introduce the application to a single provider initially with several others being approached simultaneously thereafter, if an acceptable offer is not presented.
Our Approach to Market for Litigation Funding
If you require litigation funding, we will not act as your agent in seeking litigation funding. We are able to source litigation funding from Newpoint Capital Limited who is a litigation funder You are free to approach other litigation funders should you wish to compare terms.
Timescales
In the absence of any specific deadlines or urgency, we would expect to receive initial formal responses from the participating providers within 10 working days of receipt of the application.
Whilst this is our target turnaround time, if the case is particularly complex or requires an unusually high level of capacity, it can take longer for the providers to complete their assessment. If at any stage we believe that the 7-day target is unrealistic, we shall inform you at the earliest opportunity and will provide a more realistic timescale, if possible.
Our Earnings
As your chosen intermediary, we may earn income in a number of ways.
- We may charge an application fee at the outset, in order to process the application.
- We may earn a commission payment from the selected provider(s); and/or
- We may earn a commission from time to time on additional fees charged by providers during the application process. The additional fees may give rise to a conflict of interest between you, us and the provider concerned. We will take care to ensure that such conflicts are properly managed so we can continue to act in your best interests.
You have the right to ask about our remuneration as a result of broking insurance on your behalf.
Your Obligation to Disclose Information
During the application process, you are under a duty to make a “fair presentation” of the risk. In doing so, you must disclose every material circumstance which you know, or ought to know, or disclosure which provides the receiving party with sufficient information to put the receiving party on notice that they need to make further enquiries into those material circumstances.
All material facts that are disclosed must be substantially correct and every material representation made in good faith.
If you are not an individual, the scope of what you know or ought to know extends to what is known to individuals who part of your senior management team is, or any parties that are responsible for your insurances.
If you are in doubt as to whether something constitutes a material fact, you should disclose it. If you fail to disclose a material fact, it may affect how claims are settled under the insurance policy or may render it invalid and/or breach the litigation funding agreement.
Reporting to the provider
Once a litigation insurance policy is in place, there will be an ongoing obligation to report certain events to the providers and/or obtain the providers’ consent prior to undertaking certain steps in the litigation, including but not limited to commencing proceedings or rejecting/making an offer of settlement.
We strongly recommend that you take time to familiarise yourself with the relevant policy/agreement’s reporting requirements.
Please ensure that all reporting is made directly to the provider or to us if requested to avoid delay.
Insurance Policies
The relationship between you and an insurer is governed by the insurance policy. It is imperative that you read and fully understand the terms and conditions of the insurance policy and accompanying literature.
Claims under litigation insurance policies
Any claim or circumstances which may give rise to a claim should be notified directly to the insurance company without delay. Failing to comply with claims notification procedures may result in the insurer refusing to admit the claim. The policy terms and conditions will describe the claims notification procedures in detail. If you are unsure about any aspect, please contact us immediately.
Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure of Quotations
You are entitled to approach, whether directly or by another broker/agency, any provider whom we have not approached on your behalf.
Where we have approached providers in relation to your application, you agree to our exclusive instruction in relation to that provider. You will not approach or instruct any other broker/agency to approach the same provider, or approach that provider directly, without our consent unless our instruction has been terminated in accordance with the termination provisions within this agreement.
You will not disclose information about the offers produced by providers we have approached on your behalf to any third parties without our consent. In some cases, such disclosure may constitute a breach of the provider’s own terms and conditions.
Your Legal Representatives Regulation
Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and other associated regulations, anyone who carries out insurance mediation activities must either be authorised by the FCA or fall within the scope of an exemption. Insurance mediation activities include (but are not limited to) dealing in, arranging, assisting in the administration and performance of and advising on contracts of insurance.
Therefore, if a solicitor or other legal representative is arranging ATE insurance on your behalf (regardless of whether they are making a formal recommendation regarding a particular policy), the solicitor or legal representative requires FCA approval or an exemption.
There is an exemption for solicitors under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, provided that certain requirements are met, including that the insurance mediation activities are ‘incidental to the provision of professional services. In order to qualify for the exemption, the solicitor firm needs to be listed on the FCA’s Exempt Professional Firm register (https://register.fca.org.uk/). For more information regarding this, please contact us.
Insurer Security
Wherever we broker an insurance policy, we cannot and do not guarantee the solvency of the insurance company or insurance intermediary, nor do we rate, assess or approve financial security. However, we do try to ensure that all insurers or insurance intermediaries that we approach are recognised as being reputable providers of litigation insurance.
We use both UK and overseas insurers to obtain suitable quotations for our clients. It should be noted that a different legal and regulatory regime may apply to non-UK insurers so your ability to enforce your legal rights or seek compensation may vary.
If you have any concerns about the insurers, we are approaching to provide cover, please contact us immediately.
Confidentiality
All information about you provided in support of this application will be treated as private and confidential.
Privilege
Arranging litigation insurance will necessarily involve information being provided to us which is subject to litigation privilege and/or legal professional privilege. We will in turn share this information with the providers which we have selected for inclusion in our active search of the market.
Whilst this information will be shared with participating providers on the expectation that it will remain privileged from disclosure, we cannot guarantee that this will be the case and therefore if you have any concerns regarding this issue, please contact us.
Please note it is possible for the opponent to successfully apply to the court for disclosure of the litigation insurance policy or litigation funding agreement albeit the courts have demonstrated sensitivity towards ordering disclosure of prejudicial aspects of these documents during live proceedings.
Data Protection
The only personal information about you which we will retain will be that provided by you in the course of seeking insurance and/or funding. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, private customers have the right to see any personal information which we hold in our records. If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Termination
This agreement can be terminated by either one of us giving 3 days’ written notice to the other.
If an litigation insurance policy and/or litigation funding arrangement has been executed prior to termination of this agreement, we reserve the right to retain any fees, brokerage or entitlement to fees or brokerage which may become payable following termination. All obligations to pay us brokerage on deferred insurance premiums or contingent third-party funding success fees in accordance with the “Our Earnings” section of this document will survive the termination of this agreement.
If an insurance policy and/or litigation funding arrangement has not been executed prior to termination of this agreement, but you later execute an insurance policy and/or litigation funding arrangement with a provider that we have approached on your behalf, we reserve the right to charge a reasonable fee for introductory services which might equate to the full brokerage due had this agreement not been terminated.
Complaints
We aim to provide the highest level of customer service possible, at all times. That said, if you wish to make a complaint about our services, we do have a formal complaints procedure. In the first instance, you should contact us directly either in writing or by telephone. If you are contacting us in writing, please address your complaint to:
The Complaints Officer
Suite 9B
St Christopher House
217 Wellington Road
Stockport
SK2 6NG
Or, alternatively, you can call us on 0161 388 2520
If you make a complaint, we will acknowledge it promptly, explain how we will handle your complaint, explain what you need to do (if anything) and update you as to how your complaint is progressing.
If we cannot resolve your complaint straight away, we will acknowledge its receipt promptly and arrange for a senior representative to investigate the matter and provide you with a response.
If the complaint relates to our role as an insurance intermediary and we are unable to resolve the issue, you may be entitled to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (‘FOS’). If you are eligible, we will provide you with details of how to refer to the FOS when we send you our final written response or at 8 weeks after receipt of your complaint (whichever is the earliest).
Limitation of Alternative Insurance Brokers Ltd, Liability
We will not be liable to you for any direct or indirect losses, damages or costs or expenses incurred or suffered by you as a result of or in connection with any service that we provide to you hereunder unless directly caused by or attributable to our negligence, wilful deceit or fraud (or that of our directors, officers or employees).
Our liability for losses caused by our negligence is hereby limited to £1million. There is no limitation of liability in relation to any losses caused by wilful deceit or fraud (or that of our directors, officers or employees).
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
These Terms of Business and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with the same or the subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
The parties irrevocably agree that the courts of England and Wales shall have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim that arises out of or in connection with this agreement or its subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims).