ARAG Legal Expenses: cover, claims and protection

ARAG is a legal expenses insurer. Most people never buy a policy from it directly: they meet it because the home, motor or travel policy they already hold includes a legal expenses section that ARAG provides. If you have a legal problem that your policy covers, ARAG confirms the cover with your main insurer, then appoints a law firm to handle the case.

ARAG is a legal expenses insurer: it underwrites Home Emergency and Home Legal Expenses cover, and its products are designed to protect against the impact of legal disputes¹. It has been on the Financial Conduct Authority register since 1 December 2001, and it also appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance³.

The name matters to anyone who has held a policy for years: the FCA register lists the firm's previous names as DAS LawAssist, DAS Group, DAS, 80e and DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited³. If your paperwork says DAS, it is the same insurer.

ARAG cover sold through other insurers' policies

Legal expenses cover is unusual among insurance products because of how it is allowed to be sold. The rules say legal expenses cover must be either a policy in its own right or a separate section of a policy covering one or more other classes of general insurance, and where it is a section, that section must specify the nature of the cover⁶. That is why legal protection so often arrives as a named part of a home or motor policy rather than as something you chose on its own.

The practical effect is that two firms are involved in your cover. The insurer you bought the policy from is your main insurer; ARAG is the specialist providing the legal expenses section. When you claim, ARAG contacts your main insurer to confirm you have an ARAG legal expenses policy and that it was in place on the date the problem started⁷. That check is why a claim can stall if the underlying policy has lapsed, and why it is worth knowing which firm actually stands behind the legal cover in your documents.

Cover of this kind is not confined to home and motor. Travel policies can include it too: some will pay your legal costs if you decide to sue a third party for damages as a result of personal injury or death⁹. If you are unsure whether a policy you hold carries legal expenses cover, the policy schedule and the section headings are where to look. Our guide to insurance explains how these add-on sections fit into a wider policy.

Home legal expenses and home emergency cover

Home legal expenses cover is usually sold as an optional extra rather than as standard. In one home insurance policy booklet, Home Legal Expenses appears as an optional addition available on buildings cover only policies, giving access to a legal helpline and legal expenses cover underwritten by Acromas¹⁰. That is a useful illustration of how the market works: the brand on the policy is not always the firm carrying the risk.

The legal helpline is the part most people use first. In that same policy the number given for the legal advice helpline is 0161 428 7039⁵. Helplines of this kind are for advice on where you stand, not for running a case; if the matter turns into a claim, it moves to the claims process described below.

Home emergency cover is a different product that is often sold alongside legal expenses, and it is worth keeping the two apart. Legal expenses cover pays for legal costs in a dispute. Emergency cover deals with the immediate problem in the home, such as a burst pipe or a broken lock. Which of the two responds depends on what has gone wrong, and a policy may include one, both or neither. Our insurance guide covers how these sections are arranged.

Motor legal protection and replacement vehicle cover

Motor legal protection is the version most drivers meet, because it is commonly offered when a motor policy is taken out or renewed. It covers the cost of pursuing a claim after a collision that was not your fault, typically for uninsured losses such as an excess or hire charges, and it is arranged as a section of the motor policy rather than as a standalone contract.

ARAG's own motor product information document names ARAG as the insurer of its Motor Legal Solutions section⁵. That document is the place to look for what a particular motor legal protection section includes and excludes, since the terms vary between the policies ARAG provides for different insurers.

Replacement vehicle cover is the part of motor legal protection that pays for a hire car while yours is off the road following a non-fault incident. Whether it applies, for how long, and what class of vehicle it provides are all set by the individual policy, so the schedule and the section wording are the documents that decide it. Our insurance guide sets out how motor add-ons are structured more generally.

Personal legal expenses and farm cover

Beyond home and motor, ARAG provides legal expenses cover for other situations. Its landlord legal protection product is underwritten by ARAG as a UK-based legal expenses insurance provider⁴. The same product shows how the cover is operated in practice: ARAG will appoint a law firm or legal representative with the qualifications and expertise to deal with your claim⁴.

Farm and rural business cover sits in the same family. Policies of this kind typically combine legal expenses protection with advice lines for the business and the household, and they are arranged through the insurer or broker that provides the underlying farm policy rather than bought from ARAG directly.

Personal legal expenses cover is the broadest category, and the one where the exclusions do the most work. Those four conditions recur across legal expenses products generally, and they are the reason a claim can be refused even when the dispute itself looks strong.

How cover limits and policy terms work

Legal expenses policies are written with a limit, and the limit is the most a claim can cost the insurer. The figure for your policy is stated in your schedule, and it varies between policies and between the insurers ARAG provides cover for. The limit is not the only control on what gets paid.

Legal expenses cover is normally written on a prospects basis: the insurer will only fund a case if it has a reasonable chance of success, which is why the landlord product excludes claims where the appointed lawyer does not believe you are more likely than not to win⁶. Costs run up before the insurer has agreed to pay are excluded too, so the sequence matters: report first, get agreement, then instruct.

There is a structural point worth knowing. Because legal expenses cover is a separate section of a wider policy, the insurer providing it can require the case to be handled by a law firm it appoints, rather than by a solicitor you choose yourself. That is how ARAG operates: once cover is confirmed, it passes the claim to a law firm with the right experience for the case⁸. If you want your own solicitor to act, the policy terms are what determine whether that is possible and who pays the difference.

Formerly DAS: what the name change means for customers

The insurer now trading as ARAG was previously registered under a series of DAS names: DAS LawAssist, DAS Group, DAS, 80e and DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Limited³. Policies issued under those names are policies of the same firm, and the change of name does not alter the terms of cover that were agreed.

The confusion to avoid is with the Debt Arrangement Scheme, which is also shortened to DAS. That is a Scottish debt payment programme, not an insurer, and it has nothing to do with legal expenses policies. It is run under its own rules, with a DAS Administrator who approves and revokes the approval of payments distributors, and an online public register holding information about those intending or applying for a debt payment programme¹¹.

If you are dealing with problem debt rather than a legal dispute, our debt guide covers the options in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and free help is available from MoneyHelper and the debt advice charities.

How to make a legal expenses claim with ARAG

The claim starts with ARAG rather than with a solicitor. You can make a claim by completing the claim form on the ARAG website, or by calling the claims helpline if you are unable to submit online; the number is in your policy documents⁸. ARAG encourages policyholders to call the legal advice line as soon as they can, again using the number in the policy documents⁸.

ARAG then checks the cover. Before it can assess a claim it needs to confirm the details of your legal expenses insurance cover with your main insurer, including the level of cover and any exclusions⁷. Once cover has been confirmed, ARAG passes the claim to a law firm with the right experience for the case, which sends a client engagement letter; work starts once that letter has been read and signed⁸.

Two practical points sit alongside the process. ARAG offers reasonable adjustments to help make things easier for customers who need extra support⁸. And if your policy includes access to legal document templates, the link to sign up and the voucher code are in your policy documents⁸.

Contacting ARAG and complaining

ARAG's customer contact runs through the website and the numbers printed in policy documents. Claims are started online through the make a claim option or by phone, and the legal advice line is the route for advice before a claim exists⁷. Because ARAG provides cover through other insurers, your first point of contact for anything about the underlying policy, including cancellation and renewal, is usually the insurer you bought it from.

If something goes wrong, the firm gets the first opportunity to put it right. If you are not satisfied with its final response, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to consumers. The ombudsman looks at insurance complaints including legal expenses disputes, and its decisions are based on what is fair and reasonable in the circumstances.

There is a wider rule that supports this. Where alternative dispute resolution is offered to consumers, it must be available free of charge or at a nominal fee¹⁴, and an ADR body's website must let a consumer file an initial complaint submission and any supporting documents online¹⁵. The Energy Ombudsman, listed as an approved ADR body, states that its procedure is and will continue to be free to use for consumers¹⁶. The Financial Ombudsman Service works on the same principle for the firms it covers.

FSCS and FCA protection for ARAG policyholders

ARAG is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance³. A provider's status can be checked on the FCA register using its firm reference number; if the status shows authorised, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme may be able to compensate you if the firm fails⁹. Operating without FCA authorisation is against the law¹¹.

The protection that applies to an insurance policy is policyholder protection, not the deposit protection that covers money in a bank account. The scheme rules say that if your claim is for a deposit or under a contract of insurance, the PRA's Depositor Protection or Policyholder Protection rules apply¹². FSCS protection applies at firm level and may be shared across brands under the same authorisation, so two brands under one licence do not give two separate limits¹³.

If a firm fails, the FSCS can appoint run-off agents to handle claims and pays those agents the cost of doing so¹⁷. Where the scheme requires it, a customer must assign their legal rights in the claim to the FSCS¹². Firms authorised by the FCA are required to give the scheme the information it needs in a timely manner under the FCA's compensation rules¹⁸.