Business legal insurance

Contract disputes and debt recovery

You might claim for this if a contract disagreement prevents you being paid.

What’s covered?

• costs and expenses for contractual disputes arising from an agreement
• contracts for the purchase, hire, sale, or provision of goods or services provided by you
• costs and expenses for disputes relating to debt recovery, including judgement enforcements
• unpaid invoices

Debts owed must exceed £200, and you’ll need to make your legal business insurance claim within 90 days of the debt being due or payable.

For example:

• one of your clients has informed you that, after checking over your works, they’re not happy with the result and believe you haven’t met the contractual requirements. As a result, they’re refusing to pay their outstanding invoice

What isn’t covered?

• contractual disputes arising from supply, hire, sale, or provision of any software, computer systems, or hardware
• debts arising from an agreement you entered into before your legal expenses insurance policy start date
• disputes arising from any debts you have purchased from a third party

Employment disputes and compensation

You might claim for this if an employee (including a volunteer) raises a claim against you.

What’s covered?

• costs and expenses to defend your legal rights as a business owner, before legal proceedings in a court or tribunal
• employee dismissals
• employment contract disputes
• alleged breach of statutory rights

For example:

• an employee feels you haven’t fulfilled your contractual obligations, regarding their statutory rights
• you need to dismiss an employee following client complaints, and they threaten to file an unfair dismissal lawsuit

Data protection

You might claim for this if you’re handling personal data, in any form.

What’s covered?

• cases relating to civil action taken against you for compensation under data protection legislation

For example:

• your employee leaves their laptop unattended in a coffee shop, and a third party is able to lift a customer’s data

What isn’t covered?

• the cost of fines issued
• loss, alteration, corruption, distortion of, or damage to stored personal data, or reduction of functionality, resulting from hacking or a virus

Tax protection

You might claim for this if a tax enquiry is made against you.

What’s covered?

• costs and expenses relating to tax enquiries made against you or your business
• general enquiries against your business
• employer compliance disputes
• VAT disputes
• personal tax enquiries

For example:

• HMRC begin an investigation into your recent tax return, triggered by a fluctuation in your business income

Corporate identity theft protection

You might claim for this if someone uses your company’s identity illegally.

What’s covered and included?

• costs and expenses following identity theft
• a personal caseworker, who’ll build an action plan to help regain your stolen identity
• disputes with debt collectors, or any part who takes legal action against you, as a result of identity theft
• costs incurred for phone calls, faxes, or postage to communicate with the police, credit agencies, and financial service providers
• costs and expenses to reinstate your stolen identity, including signing statutory declarations or similar documents

For example:

• someone gets hold of your company bank details and uses them to buy goods and services
• your CEO’s contact details are used by a fraudster to set up a new line of credit with a business bank

What isn’t covered?

• fraud committed by anyone entitled to make a claim under this legal expenses insurance policy
• cover for anyone other than you, other directors of the business, spouses, or civil partners