Advice on Motor Legal Protection

bettz

Hi after some advice on if its worth purchasing motor legal protection when doing a quote as most insurance companies want £30

I've seen a few threads which mention https://memonline.co.uk/ which does legal protection for £15.49 or 2 cars for £25 anyone claimed with these?

DullGreyGuy

They say they have "tens of thousands" of customers and so are tiny, under 1% of Direct Line's customer base. Claims are handled by the insurer Financial & Legal Insurance Company Limited, which contrary to Mem's does have complaints registered at the Financial Ombudsman (you cannot see who the seller was on ombudsman for claims complaints).

The two most notable elements of the policy is the "cost effective" clause which may mean they wont take on small track cases (eg if your uninsured losses are just your excess)  plus the "discontinuance" - so like conditional funding/no win, no fee, once you've started a claim you cannot pull out without having to pay costs unless the insurer agrees continuance isnt the right choice.

Wording is better than some other standalone policies

baser999

Have a look at Driver Guardian

lisyloo

I have this one. 4 family members, any vehicle £15

https://www.rac.co.uk/insurance/legal-expenses-insurance

Bigphil1474

OP, do you have legal cover on your home insurance that would cover motoring issues? Or are you in a trade union at work? I have legal cover through union membership so don't have it on my car insurance. Provides same cover so no point paying twice.

lisyloo

Bigphil1474 said:

OP, do you have legal cover on your home insurance that would cover motoring issues? Or are you in a trade union at work? I have legal cover through union membership so don't have it on my car insurance. Provides same cover so no point paying twice.

In general home insurance cover does not cover "whilst driving or as a passenger in a motor vehicle" or some such.
The wording is important as this does usually provide cover whilst cycling.
I'm not saying there isn't an exception somewhere but generally these are separate products.

memonline will sell them together for a discount (£27 vs £31 seperately).

qsk

@lisyloo, you seem to have looked at both memonline and RAC: can you tell any difference between them in terms of cover?

lisyloo

I would be happy with either as both are covered by FCA and therefore ombudsman.

RAC is a clear winner on costs for multiple vehicles as its £15 for any number of vehicles.
Whereas memonline is £26 for 2, £35 for 3 and £41 for 4.

memonline appears to list more bells and whistles - for example car hire, but I suspect that's a credit hire arrangement that they claim back anyway which RAC would also probably do, so memonline are listing a whole lot of things that are covered by rac but not as prominently marketed.
You'd have to go down into a lot of detail to find the differences as on the face of it they are the same. £100K legal expenses, advice, consumer and motoring disputes.
I'd be happy with either I'm just with RAC because we have multiple vehicles so their pricing model is much better for my situation.
I've never claimed on one of these policies but there have been situations where I've had professional advice for free, so I'd definitely recommend having one.

For home insurance I also see the value of a standalone policy.
There was a case (on here) where someone had an issue with their home insurer but couldn't use their home insurers legal policy to take issue with their home insurer.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:

There was a case (on here) where someone had an issue with their home insurer but couldn't use their home insurers legal policy to take issue with their home insurer.

Home Legal Expenses policies typically provide 2 things:

1) a 24/7 legal advise line on anything... but this is basic legal advice, its not send us your paperwork and we'll do detailed analysis of your particular case etc

2) Support to make a claim against another party on certain topics such as employment law, property boundary disputes, trips/slips/falls etc

I've not seen any HLE policy that includes insurance claims under part 2 of the policy. In many cases the LE cover is provided by a different insurer to the home insurance policy (eg DAS) and so there is no "conflict of interests" type issue

lisyloo

I’ll see if I can find the post for you, but I’ve certainly seen it before where you can sure your motor or home insurer with their own legal insurance,

sorry can’t find it now (too many posts to search through). It was where someone had an issue because their home wasn’t habitable (damp etc.) but the house insurers wouldn’t pay for alternative accommodation. The add-ones aren’t always via a seperate company like and perhaps that is the distinction.

DullGreyGuy

lisyloo said:

I’ll see if I can find the post for you, but I’ve certainly seen it before where you can sure your motor or home insurer with their own legal insurance,

Motor LE is different because its mainly its old name ULR and with that "you" cannot sue your own motor insurer on the basis uninsured losses can only be recovered by the non-fault party and if you're that party its the TP insurer, not your own, that pays. Your passengers however normally can use the policy to sue you.

It's Home LE which would be interesting to see any cases where LE has covered legal action against the insurer. On the basis that claims must be cost proportional there'd be a strong argument that you'd have to go via the ombudsman first given its free and if that fails then its likely you will fail the reasonable prospects of success requirement of an LE policy to litigate.