Home insurance-legal cover??

C_Mababejive

I have always been a little unclear on this. If you sign up for this then typically,what benefits does it grant?

Can anyone list any examples in which they have engaged such insurance and for what cause/outcome?

Is it restricted to household matters eg boundary disputes etc?
tnx

InsideInsurance

It does vary fairly significantly so worth checking but in my experience the most common falls into two areas:

1) Broad/ general advise on any topic

2) Claims handling on a list of specified topics

The areas they typically cover are:

a) Injury other than from motor accidents
b) Employment tribunals
c) Insured home disputes
d) Contract disputes (eg faulty goods)

The devil in the detail is the fact their solicitors must deem you to have a reasonable prospect of success (51% or more) and in some cases reports or such would have to be paid for before they can deem that.

Personally I had two contractual disputes, first one was successful and I got a full refund from the merchant. The second one I fell out with the solicitors as they wanted me to pay £1,000 for a report which would then be added to my claim should it support my case - circumstances changed and I got compensation for their miss handling of the case and so ultimately it was abandoned

David_InsDef

The main, but oft unwritten reason for the existence of Legal Cover is to farm claims for lawyers.

If you have a genuine legal issue, even one where there is a high probability of winning a case; the likelihood is that if there isn't enough in it for a lawyer to make a decent return - you'll get little more than (limited) helpline guidance.

InsideInsurance

David_InsDef wrote: »

The main, but oft unwritten reason for the existence of Legal Cover is to farm claims for lawyers.

If you have a genuine legal issue, even one where there is a high probability of winning a case; the likelihood is that if there isn't enough in it for a lawyer to make a decent return - you'll get little more than (limited) helpline guidance.

For Motor it is 100%, its been a while since I looked at the numbers but it used to be the case they could have given it away and still made a profit from the fees paid by the solicitors to be on the panel.

Home LE was different though because there is a massively larger number of cases where legal costs are excluded (ie Small Track or employers tribunals)

Arguable solicitors are commercial entities and so perhaps they will look at a reward/ cost for a claim however they are also a regulated industry and could find themselves in a lot of bother were they being lax simply because there isnt enough in it for them. Similarly insurers are regulated and would have equal issue for sanctioning such behaviour unless the policybook explicitly puts minimum claims or maxmium amount of hours etc

dunroving

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It does vary fairly significantly so worth checking but in my experience the most common falls into two areas:

1) Broad/ general advise on any topic

2) Claims handling on a list of specified topics

The areas they typically cover are:

a) Injury other than from motor accidents
b) Employment tribunals
c) Insured home disputes
d) Contract disputes (eg faulty goods)

The devil in the detail is the fact their solicitors must deem you to have a reasonable prospect of success (51% or more) and in some cases reports or such would have to be paid for before they can deem that.

Personally I had two contractual disputes, first one was successful and I got a full refund from the merchant. The second one I fell out with the solicitors as they wanted me to pay £1,000 for a report which would then be added to my claim should it support my case - circumstances changed and I got compensation for their miss handling of the case and so ultimately it was abandoned

Some LE cover will cover situations where the insured was not the driver and was not in their own vehicle (i.e., was involved in an accident while a passenger in a vehicle not owned by them).

InsideInsurance

dunroving wrote: »

Some LE cover will cover situations where the insured was not the driver and was not in their own vehicle (i.e., was involved in an accident while a passenger in a vehicle not owned by them).

Some will also cover when you are the driver even if the terms exclude it.

At the end of the day the more they can push through their tame legal firm the bigger commissions they can get. Its rare to get an injury under £1,000 and so cases all tend to be fast track or above and so dont cost the insurer anything but having a clause that excludes them (a) enables them to sell LE on Motor as well and (b) means they can not provide cover in a messy case if they dont want to

OnanTheBarbarian

My opinion, for what it is worth;

1- Home Legal Expenses/ Family Legal Protection policies - probably are worth taking out as they cover a range of issues where legal assistance may be required and they seem to actually end up paying the lawyers who do the work, subject to the policy terms such as "reasonable prospects of success". Also the complete demise of legal aid now and the massive hike in court fees recently means that taking action yourself if you don't have such cover could actually be impossible due to the costs of doing so.

2- Motor Legal cover - generally a shady area as far as I'm concerned as the policies seldom actually pay any legal costs out, especially if it is a panel firm, who usually will have a side agreement signed with the insurers saying they will never make a claim against the policy for their fees. The saving grace of these policies is that if you use them for a motor injury claim, you will keep 100% of your compensation and also get assistance on small claim matters like recovery of a £100 excess. Either legal expenses policies or free to join organisations assist here.

Where as if you don't have any cover, you will end up instructing a no win no fee lawyer, who generally will have up to 25% of your winnings away at the point of settlement. Also you would find a lack of lawyers who would take on a £100 excess recovery claim as there are no costs worth bothering with/ they lose a lot of money on such cases. So they would probably charge you more than your claim is worth in fees, which would not be recoverable. leaving you to DIY.