Legal Expense Insurance (LEI) specialist ARAG Services Australia has launched Business Essentials, augmenting its Comfort and Elite range, and costing as little as $260 a year.

ARAG Australia CEO Natasha Gale says the new LEI cover provides “access to justice” for micro and small businesses.

“ARAG wants to enable small businesses to also have legal protection, for defence and pursuit of their legal rights, at an affordable price,” said Ms Gale, who took the top role a year ago after the family-owned German business quickly scaled up in size to support a local chief.

While LEI is a common insurance held by most businesses across Europe, UK, Canada and the US, it is less known here, even though Australia is the second most litigious country after the US.

ARAG says Business Essentials is ideal for clients just starting up, have low turnover, low risk or don’t require Management Liability. ARAG says it can also be a low-cost but comprehensive inclusion to complement its Management Liability offer, with both pursuit and defence.

Clients get access to a legal document centre to execute their own supplier or employment contracts, download codes of conduct, privacy policies, confidentiality and hire agreements, credit applications and more. It is supported by a document review service by a qualified lawyer.

ARAG also offers a legal helpline, and says having these legal resources gives small business owners more confidence to take action when they need to.

Essentials Cover includes Employment Restrictive Covenants, Property & Goods, Statutory Licence, Tax Investigations and Audit, Contract Disputes and Tenancy Disputes. It has a $50,000-$100,000 limit per claim, $250,000 aggregate, and excess ranging from nil to $1000.

ARAG Services Australia LEI is underwritten by HDI Global Specialty SE – Australia.