Car Insurance - Is Optional Legal Cover worth having?

humfer

See that almost all car insurance companies give you the option of adding legal cover onto your insurance policy, normally at between £10 to £15. Does anyone know if this is actually of any benefit to you, or is it (as I suspect) just another profiteering avenue for the insurance company?

lisyloo

Well it would be a benefit to you if you have an accident and you want to claim uninsured losses e.g. personal injuries, or personal possessions.

You may not be aware but there's a whole host of things that the insurance won't cover you for e.g. clothes, cds etc. not to mention personal injury and medical treatment.

Personally I think it is a good idea although I have one policy for car & bike.
I don't like paying many times over for the same thing.

I take it out on my house insurance because that covers my bicycle e.g. if someone hit me off my bicycle I can sue them for personal injuries or loss of earnings.

impy78

I would say that Legal protection is most definitely worth taking.

I work for an insurance company,and some of the add on products are a waste of time, but the motor leagl protection isn't:

You get a courtesy car, regardless of whether your insurer will cover it or not.

You can claim your excess back if the third party is at fault.

You can claim for - loss of earnings, ambulance fees, medical bills, transportation costs and any other expenses incurred by the claim/not having a car that are not insured under you rpolicy.

I would ask for a list of the terms and conditions from the particular insurance company you are with to see what is covered if you are unsure.

mrcow

humfer wrote:

See that almost all car insurance companies give you the option of adding legal cover onto your insurance policy, normally at between £10 to £15. Does anyone know if this is actually of any benefit to you, or is it (as I suspect) just another profiteering avenue for the insurance company?

I don't know if it helps, but put it this way, a drunk driver wrote off my brother's car two months ago.

My brother has been able to sue for £2k of medical damages and about £1.5k of uninsured losses and loss of earnings etc. All of which he's out of pocket for and all of which he would have lost without the clause in his policy. He also had a curtesy car for the period up until they gave him the cheque for his old car.

It's the same with any insurance policy it's only of use if you actually have to make a claim.

Astaroth

To complete the picture....

There are no win no fee companies out there (conditional funding as it is properly called) but they work on the premise that they can claim their own costs directly from the other party.

Whilst you could rely on the above instead of getting the legal protection cover there are possible issues:

Claims for damages excluding injury will 99% likely not be taken up by any of these firms as they can only get fees if they go to court rather than an out of court settlement (which is 95% of cases) and even if it goes to court it has to be above the small claims limit for them to get paid.

Only in claims above the small track limit can the solicitor claim for their costs from the other side. Currently there is a review of the limits of the different levels within the court - for injury claims it is suspected the limit will be raised to somewhere between £2500 and £5000, so basically ambulance chasers will no longer be interested in your typical whiplash type injuries.


It comes down to personal preference - I used to be a claims handler so I would be comfortable handling a claim for my uninsured losses excluding injury. At the moment I dont have legal expenses because of the above and the fact there are so few injuries worth less than £1000 that it isnt a problem but when the limit gets raised I will certainly be buying it.

happyhunter

I have known someone who had an accident and the other party is clearly at fault. But they make up stories and even named a witness who definitely wasn't at the scene at the time of accident.
Since they are not admitting fault and making false claims, the legal team needs to be brought in.
My advice is - definitely worth buying the legal cover. Nowadays, nobody accept liability even when clearly at fault!

Astaroth

Just to clarify - your insurers will negotiate liability and go to court if necessary without you having legal expenses cover - but they will only go to court for their own losses and not your uninsured losses.

Connor_G

Yep, thanks guys! I'm currently sussing out the ins and outs of car insurance. Your experiences and advice have helped me make the decision to certainly go for the optional insurance - coz you really never can be too sure!