Before-the-event insurance – choice of solicitor Brown-Quinn & Anor v Equity Syndicate

Managment LTD & Anor [2011] EWHC 2661 (Comm), 21 October 2011

Under a before-the-event insurance policy for litigation costs it is not open to an insurer to refuse to allow the insured to choose a solicitor solely because the solicitor’s hourly charges are above the panel/non-panel rates dictated by the insurer. Those panel rates, however, will still retain relevance because the court could take them into account in a between-the-parties costs assessment in the measure of whether the hourly rates claimed by the successful insured are reasonable. In addition to this main point, the court also concluded that a request to transfer a case to a new solicitor could not be ‘unreasonably’ refused.