UNISON Direct 0845 355 0845

Your Union, Your Lawyers.

Did you know that your UNISON membership entitles you and your family to an extensive package of free legal services?

UNISON not only provides you with the wide ranging benefits associated with being a member of the UK’s largest trades union: it also gives members the security of free specialist legal services from lawyers with historic links and a long partnership with UNISON and the trades union movement.

Thompsons solicitors are the UK’s largest personal injury law firm with 23 offices and over 800 staff across Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The firm has been established for over 80 years and during that time has been actively involved in the expansion and protection of the trades union movement’s rights, taking a direct part in helping UNISON to promote and protect the interests of its members.

Thompsons has a reputation for taking aggressive legal action to defend the interests of UNISON members. They have, over the years, extended the boundaries of legal protection for working people by winning landmark and groundbreaking cases where the health and safety of members and their families have been affected.

What makes UNISON’s lawyers so different?

Most solicitors (including many who act for Trades Unions), also act for insurance companies and employers as well. Thompsons only ever acts on behalf of injured people. Thompsons knows whose side it’s on.

UNISON, through Thompsons, protect you from the many pitfalls and well publicised risks of pursuing your personal injury case with unregulated claims management companies who advertise so widely on the television and radio with their boasts of “no win no fee”.

Some UNISON members in Wales for example, have already found to their detriment, the real cost of taking their claims through claims farmers. They have ended up paying back most of their compensation to the claims company because they had to sign up to credit agreements that funded the fees payable to doctors and the court on their case. They could have kept every single penny of their compensation by getting their legal advice and representation through UNISON.

“But I’ve got legal expenses insurance on my car insurance”

Many UNISON members are paying every year for legal expenses insurance through their motor, household and contents insurance policies when they don’t need to. UNISON membership provides legal expenses cover for members and family if they are injured and need to make personal injury claims. Family members are covered for all accidents except those in work.

New financial services regulations require all insurance companies who sell insurance, to ask their prospective client what insurance cover they already have so that duplicate policies are not sold to people who don’t need them. So when you ring for an insurance quote, you should be asked whether you are a member of a Trades Union and if you don’t get asked, tell the insurer yourself. You can save yourself money in the process.