Employment tribunal claims in England and Wales reached a record open caseload of 68,192 cases in January 2026, up nearly 50% year on year, according to data on the employment tribunal backlog reaching a record high. Separately, Ministry of Justice figures published in its Tribunal Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2025 showed single employment tribunal claims rose 54% year on year in the final quarter of 2025.
For Billi Cobley, senior class underwriter at Irwell Insurance, the Manchester-based legal expenses insurer, rising dispute volumes strengthen the case for treating legal expenses insurance (LEI) as more than an optional add-on.
"The perception's still there, but I think it's probably somewhat outdated," Cobley said.
Businesses routinely insure property, liability and product exposures, yet employment issues, contractual disagreements and property disputes can be equally familiar features of commercial life. Cobley believes the way LEI is presented has failed to reflect that.
"There's employment issues, contract issues, property disputes – they're just all part of running the business," he said. "I think overall as an industry we need to stop presenting it as an add-on and actually explain how useful it is and how practical it can be in managing everyday legal risks that a business could face as part of their operations. "
Rising legal costs add another dimension. Complex or prolonged disputes requiring specialist advice can become expensive quickly, while historic claims experience may not necessarily indicate where future losses will emerge.
For Cobley, that puts greater emphasis on understanding exposure and pricing it realistically. It also means responding to changes in legislation and claimant behaviour rather than assuming an established book will continue to perform in the same way.
"The biggest challenge we've got is complacency," he said. "The legal risk is always changing, legislation's changing, claimant behaviour's changing, so our policy wording, pricing and risk appetite need to evolve along with that."
Claims experience has an important role in that process, with developments seen by claims teams feeding back into decisions over wording, pricing and appetite.
Those underwriting decisions ultimately shape the product they are comparing for clients. Similar-looking LEI policies can differ materially once the wording, conditions and services behind them are examined.
Understanding those differences requires going further than confirming that LEI is included. Cobley said the conversation should reflect the disputes a particular business is most likely to encounter, how its policy would respond and what the client needs to do when a problem first appears.
Limitations, exclusions, waiting periods and prospects-of-success requirements all need to be understood before the point of claim. That also provides a stronger basis for moving the comparison away from price alone.
"If you have two policies side by side, they might look similar on the schedule, but it's actually the quality of the wording, the legal advice and the claim service that can be very different," Cobley said.
One of the less visible differences is what happens before a dispute develops into a formal claim. Cobley believes early legal advice remains one of LEI's most overlooked benefits, particularly when attention tends to focus on the legal costs covered once proceedings are already under way.
"For me, the one aspect that would stand out would be early legal advice – insured clients getting advice as soon as possible," he said. "At the moment there's probably a lot of attention placed on what happens once a claim is actually underway, but by that stage the cost of resolving it will be rising."
Earlier intervention can help a business respond appropriately, avoid escalating a dispute and, in some cases, prevent a formal claim altogether. That makes the value of LEI harder to measure than simply comparing the cost of a claim against the premium paid.
"For me, that prevention value is often overlooked – it's harder to quantify than a legal bill for whatever the claim type may be, but I think for me, it's one of the key reasons why people should buy legal expenses cover."
The argument becomes more significant as pressure builds elsewhere in the justice system. Record court backlogs are reshaping the wider legal expenses insurance market, with the average small claim now taking well over 40 weeks to reach trial. That changes the LEI proposition: its value is not confined to paying legal costs after a dispute has escalated, but can begin when a problem first appears and there is still an opportunity to change what happens next.
