We are regularly approached by employees with legal expenses insurance who would like to be assisted by us. The insurer tries to have the insured assisted as much as possible by their own lawyers. However, sometimes this takes too long, or more expertise is needed. According to European law (and also the WfT), there is a right to free choice of lawyer as soon as there is a judicial procedure.
On November 7, 2013, the Court of Justice already ruled (Snelle/DAS) that an insured person in a court procedure has the right to choose their own lawyer, instead of compulsory assistance by the legal experts of the legal expenses insurer.
A very important development is that the European Court of Justice clarified on April 7, 2016, that the right to freely choose a lawyer also applies in a procedure at UWV (Massar/DAS), see http://iturl.nl/snReXAF
It is important to know that the legal expenses insurer cannot refuse a request for free choice of lawyer once a procedure before the court or UWV is imminent. In our experience, it is advisable not to wait too long with this and to expressly invoke this with the legal expenses insurer.
By the way, we are also engaged when an insured party has a difference of opinion about the coverage or procedural chances. In that case, the insured has the right to a second opinion by a lawyer based on the dispute resolution scheme.
The insured who is aware of these rights therefore does not have to simply accept a lawyer appointed by the insurer.
