Hello,

We have legal insurance through Axa. I need a labor attorney and was recommended one by my colleague. I contacted my insurance to open a claim and they informed me that they would not pay for a lawyer of my choosing and I must instead use their lawyers to represent me.

I am not happy with this option, as they first encouraged me to attempt to handle the situation myself, and I feel they would not fully be on my side and instead provide minimal cost saving representation.

Is this the standard process with legal insurance? Is there a way that I can get a policy that covers lawyers that I choose to represent me?

Thanks!

Sure just costs a lot more and as the case has already started it is too late to get insurance for your particular issue this time

Check the conditions of your insurance. An existing case won't be covered by any new policy. Seems that you are either stuck with the legal service Axa provides or you need to pay your preferred lawyer directly.

have a look at this: https://www.moneyland.ch/de/rechtsschutz-anwalt-wahl

Yes I am aware that I can’t use it now, but want to prepare for the future. I had no idea that this was my only option with the policy we have currently.

I've never seen a policy that gives you free choice of the lawyer that you use. Every policy I've had says that you must contact the insurance company if there is an issue, and they'll appoint a firm/lawyer to represent you. So yes, this is standard practice.

I concur, I’ve never seen free choice of lawyer offered either. I would imagine it would be rather an expensive option.

Maybe you could ask them what's the hourly rate of their chosen lawyer, and see if they can cover that?


Obviously they will take every opportunity they can to avoid a claim, but maybe you get through to someone that wants to help.

CAP used to be independent, which is why I chose them. Now they belong to the ALLIANZ Group.

When I had a traffic dispute with an ALLIANZ insured taxi-company, CAP gave me the go ahead to choose my own lawyer to avoid conflict of interest. Otherwise, it is certainly standard that your legal insurance uses one of their own tame lawyers.

Probably not, because they might have an agreement with their own lawyers on how many hours could be charged for particular types of issues. They don't have that control over externals...

I see, so I guess all independent practicing lawyers have mainly wealthy clients then?

I don’t foresee I will need many hours of work in this instance, but should I need major help, it would be unaffordable to go through a law firm outside my insurance.

We have had legal insurance with Groupe Mutuel for several years but never used them - until last year when I used them twice and was literally feeding them the law/what I thought we should do/next steps etc. I wrote every letter. I used to be a lawyer and it was exactly like having a newly qualified assistant turn up on their first day. A real waste of time. The one thing she did was research that I had already found the right law. (which I had). So that was of use as I am not a Swiss jurisdiction qualified lawyer but hardly worth the premiums.

I am researching whether and if I am going to take out a policy with anyone else but for now, if your insurance uses Dextra as their legal firm, don't bother

I’m with Protekta since decades, and have a free choice of lawyer. I believe I’m insured up to 1m in legal fees per case, but have never used them.
I’m traveling currently, and don’t have access to my policy to check, but I’ve had plenty of occasions where I’ve wondered. And the policy stipulates that I have free choice, once the claim is filed.

I really would be careful about spending money on making a claim in a labor law case here in Switzerland. I was married to a labor law judge in Zurich, and know that it is usually not worth going through the stress of claiming unless your case is strong, and you have lawyer representation.

And even then, your compensation will not be that much. Pretty much just figures put into a spreadsheet and automatically calculated under Swiss laws.

I'm with Generali. The free choice option costs about Fr.100 more.

Thanks, but not looking for compensation.

Sounds about right. I don’t have the legal insurance option under my usual household and 3rd party insurances, but with a specialist company - Protekta. I pay about CHF 220.- annually for it additionally. Working in finance, and living in Switzerland - well, it’s a “nice to have”.

I'm with Protekta and when I had an issue with my health insurance, they started proceedings with their in-house team. When that stalled, they made use of an outside lawyer. I think they would have let me use a lawyer of my choosing, but as I didn't know of one, they gave me a name, which worked out fine.