Advice line and legal expenses insurance package
Chamber membership qualifies your business for a broad range of free and discounted legal advice and expenses services.
Please note: this package is only available to members paying their subscriptions directly to the Chamber.
Legal advice line service
The Chamber legal advice line Service provides free 24-hour, seven days a week confidential advice on a comprehensive range of legal and accountancy matters, including: employment health and safety, tax and VAT, data protection, property contractual, debt recovery and other related matters.
Legal expenses insurance
90 days after commencement of membership, each member company will be entitled to legal expenses insurance providing protection from unexpected legal fees and financial penalties. This essential benefit is part of your membership and includes access to a 24/7 legal advice service.
Provided by Composite Legal Expenses your business benefits from over £670,000 worth of cover.
Your business has access to up to £65,000 worth of professional fees each year to cover:
- Employment disputes: the cost of defending actions brought by employees including unfair dismissal and discrimination claims
- Employment awards: covers the employment tribunal compensation award in the event of failure in your employment representation
- Prosecution defence: cost of defending a prosecution for an offence relating to your business activities including the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
- Tax, VAT, PAYE and NIC investigations: cover is provided to pay professional fees resulting from in depth investigations
- License protection: where your business is dependent on holding a statutory license in order to trade, cover is provided for appeal costs where the license is at threat
- Data Protection Act: cost of defending civil proceedings bought against your business under the Data Protection Act
- Property legal protection: enables your business to pursue legal rights arising from negligent acts of others affecting your property
- Landlord disputes: representing your interests in disputes with landlords over the business lease or tenancy agreement
- Jury service allowance: up to £1,000 per claim to compensate for the loss of an employee attending court or tribunal
The package also offers these employee benefits:
- Personal injury (£75,000): legal expenses cover is included for all employees and their partners to pursue compensation following a personal injury
- Business motoring (£75,000): pursuing uninsured losses following a non-fault road traffic accident including excess recovery, car hire charges and credit repair
- Consumer disputes (£1,000): up to £1,000 worth of professional fees following a personal dispute arising from the purchase or sale of faulty goods or services
Legal expenses enhanced cover
For complete peace of mind members have the ability to increase their cover even further by purchasing the Chamber legal expenses enhanced cover:
Contractual disputes
Legal costs and expenses relating to a business pursuing or defending its legal rights as a result of a contract entered into by the business for the purchase, hire or sale of goods and services.
Debt recovery
Legal costs and expenses incurred by the business in respect of money and interest due from another business for the provision of goods and/or services, professional fees and dishonoured cheques.
Restrictive covenants
Legal costs and expenses incurred as a result of pursuing a claim against an employee or ex-employee who is in breach of a Restrictive Covenant included in their contract of employment.
Excess waiver
By purchasing the Enhanced Cover you will also benefit from the excess included in the main Chamber Legal Expenses policy being waived. Please note excesses of £250 for Contractual Disputes and £150 for Debt Recovery still apply.
£100,000 indemnity option
You also have the option to increase your limit if indemnity for each area of cover from the standard £65,000 to £100,000.
