ECJ needs to protect consumer access to justice, say legal expenses insurers

Brussels, 14 May 2009: In today’s report to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), Advocate-General Verica Trstenjak found that the Austrian legal expenses insurers practice of selecting the lawyers to represent their clients in collective redress proceedings is an inadmissible limitation of the rights of the insured.“Should the subsequent ECJ ruling concur with the Advocate-General’s opinion, this case could have a detrimental impact on access to law and could potentially undermine EU consumer policy,” warned Antje Fedderke, Secretary-General of the International Association of Legal