How we work
We work in ways that meet your needs.
We deliver a top-tier service, without the baggage of a bigger firm. That means we can focus on you.
We take the time and trouble to listen to you. To find out what you want to achieve, and how you want to see that delivered.
We have structured our business to deliver value.
We have sought to avoid or mitigate the overheads that drive the rates of traditional firms.
We provide significant partner input at a sensible price.
We build teams around jobs. We don’t see jobs as a means to feed teams.
Partnering with brokers to get the best for policyholders
How we work
When you work with us you will be dealing with specialists who respect your expertise and collaborate with you to meet the client’s objectives.
The words “insurance broker” encompass an enormous range of businesses of different sizes, varied structures and distinct service models and philosophies. Because we understand this, we tailor our legal services offering to each individual broker’s needs.
The insurance brokers we work with come to us for different reasons:
- Some seek comfort that the policy wordings being placed are fit for purpose by reference to the legal context in which they will operate;
- Others want to create individual policyholder friendly wordings from beginning to end;
All want to deliver the best possible protections for their clients.
We offer a range of individual services to achieve these goals.
When it comes to claims, again the needs of insurance brokers vary:
- Some seek guidance as to whether a policy may have been triggered and, if so, how best to notify insurers so as to maximise policy response;
- Others want independent legal support for their efforts to achieve early payment of claims;
All want to know that, if cover is pulled, they can refer their clients to experienced expert lawyers to litigate, arbitrate or mediate.
We offer the flexibility of resource and thinking that can help control the cost of coverage investigations and disputes.
We have access to funding from third parties to help mitigate the costs risks to policyholders.
Insurance brokers understand the commercial intent of the policies they place, and we understand that the law does not exist, or operate, in a vacuum. As a pro-policyholder firm of insurance lawyers, we advocate commercially realistic views of policy obligations which frequently overcome narrow readings of policy terms designed to reject claims.
We build relationships with insurance brokers through working with them outside the scope of individual client jobs. We are keen to share our experience of disputes and policy drafting, be it through notes, talks, seminars or bespoke training designed to meet the specific needs of individual brokers.
We know our strengths.
We respect insurance broker’s skills.
We collaborate to make the best of both.
We are on the same team with a single, unified objective: doing the best for policyholders.
Please contact any of the Partners to discuss what Wynterhill’s broker proposition might look like for your unique business.
Partnering with loss assessors and other claims professionals
How we work
We have the expertise to support and supplement the work of claims professionals.
Most of the time claims professionals get their clients’ claims paid without any need for support from a specialist law firm like Wynterhill LLP. Occasionally, however, we will be contacted for support when a loss assessor or claims consultant is confronted with unusual circumstances and a difficult insurer or loss adjuster. We have worked alongside many of the UK’s leading loss assessing firms and independent claims consultants in such cases.
We may provide ad hoc advice on some aspect of insurance law and the claim gets paid as a result. Sometimes we may advise that the insurer is correct in its coverage analysis and the bad news is delivered to the policyholder. On other occasions, we are asked to formally represent a policyholder and we then seek to compel an insurer to pay the claim when the willingness to do so appears lacking. We litigate or arbitrate and obtain forensic evidence as appropriate.
In all of these circumstances, we work with the loss assessor or claims professional in a collaborative way, respecting their skills and experience at all times. We are able to offer our services in a way which means the hard work and professional endeavour of the loss assessor or claims consultant are not lost simply because a lawyer becomes involved.
We share our mutual knowledge of insurance law and difficult claims so you can learn from us and we can learn from you.
For more information about our services to the loss assessing and claims consultants industry please contact one of Partners.