Motorbike/Car Insurance - Legal cover.

dubyah61

What is my motorbike insurance for!?

I had a motorcycle accident. Completely no fault, undisputed by other party. They accepted full liability. I HADN'T ticked and paid for legal cover. I had ticked legal cover on my car insurance policy so didn't think I needed legal cover twice.

My insurers - CAROLE NASH - supposedly "The Bikers Insurers!" covered my bike which was a write off. I agreed a figure for my bike, they paid out and I bought a new bike. However, I sustained injuries in the crash, to my back mainly. Was blue lighted to a hospital further away from the local as they thought my injuries were serious. Thankfully they weren't. Nothing broken. Serious bruising, unable to walk or care for myself for a couple of weeks but I was lucky. Probably a year to recover completely, couldn't sit or stand for any length of time for ages as I landed right on the base of my spine once I'd flown through the air, and ended up in the other lane in front of oncoming traffic. Here's the thing. Carole Nash, ("The Bikers Insurers!") weren't interested in my injuries. During an early phone call they said they'd transfer me to someone who would deal with that part of the claim. I presumed this was another department in Carole Nash. It wasn't. It was an outside company of solicitors who will take 30% of any payout I may receive. This company have been worse than useless. Bad advice. Conflicting information. Wrong information. Loss of pictures I sent them of my damaged clothing etc. Just rubbish. When I'd had enough I called Carole Nash. They were not in the slightest bit interested. It's between me and Minster Law apparently. Apparently - nothing to do with Carole Nash! How can that be? Does ordinairy car and motorbike insurance only cover the vehicle? I couldn't understand this. Carole Nash have completely washed their hands of any claim for my injuries! I'm amazed.

MSE you should publicise this - it seems if you don't tick the box and pay an extra £20 or £30 quid, you aren't covered at all - only your vehicle is! Have I got that right?

PS - Car legal cover would not cover any other vehicle, only legal claims relating to that car.

Mark_d

Car insurance legal cover add-on provides cover only in relation the the car insurance policy.  The main benefit of this add-on is for personal injury claims.

If you don't have this cover then there are any number of no-win no-fee companies who you can use.  But as you say, these companies make their money buy charging you huge fees if you win.

MyRealNameToo

dubyah61 said:

What is my motorbike insurance for!?

I had a motorcycle accident. Completely no fault, undisputed by other party. They accepted full liability. I HADN'T ticked and paid for legal cover. I had ticked legal cover on my car insurance policy so didn't think I needed legal cover twice.

My insurers - CAROLE NASH - supposedly "The Bikers Insurers!" covered my bike which was a write off. I agreed a figure for my bike, they paid out and I bought a new bike. However, I sustained injuries in the crash, to my back mainly. Was blue lighted to a hospital further away from the local as they thought my injuries were serious. Thankfully they weren't. Nothing broken. Serious bruising, unable to walk or care for myself for a couple of weeks but I was lucky. Probably a year to recover completely, couldn't sit or stand for any length of time for ages as I landed right on the base of my spine once I'd flown through the air, and ended up in the other lane in front of oncoming traffic. Here's the thing. Carole Nash, ("The Bikers Insurers!") weren't interested in my injuries. During an early phone call they said they'd transfer me to someone who would deal with that part of the claim. I presumed this was another department in Carole Nash. It wasn't. It was an outside company of solicitors who will take 30% of any payout I may receive. This company have been worse than useless. Bad advice. Conflicting information. Wrong information. Loss of pictures I sent them of my damaged clothing etc. Just rubbish. When I'd had enough I called Carole Nash. They were not in the slightest bit interested. It's between me and Minster Law apparently. Apparently - nothing to do with Carole Nash! How can that be? Does ordinairy car and motorbike insurance only cover the vehicle? I couldn't understand this. Carole Nash have completely washed their hands of any claim for my injuries! I'm amazed.

MSE you should publicise this - it seems if you don't tick the box and pay an extra £20 or £30 quid, you aren't covered at all - only your vehicle is! Have I got that right?

PS - Car legal cover would not cover any other vehicle, only legal claims relating to that car.

Car and bike insurance simply cover the car or bike as appropriate, following an RTC you may sustain various other losses like injury, damaged property, loss of earnings etc and these are collectively referred to as uninsured losses (for the obvious reason that you arent insured for them).

Traditionally Comp cover included a tiny amount of personal accident so if you lose a limb or an eye you may get a token payment but it doesnt cover any injuries below that sort of catastrophic level and most payouts are £25k or less. 

In cases where you arent wholly to blame for the incident then LE cover provides for someone to assist you in attempting to recover these losses from the third party. 

If you choose not to buy LE then you can attempt to deal with the matter yourself or appoint a solicitor under a conditional funding agreement (aka no win, no fee). CFAs will normally have a success fee that you need to pay if you do win, for personal injury its capped at 25%  but outside of injury cases the percentage can be much higher. 

Most lawyers do charge the full 25% but there are some that charge less and some that have a 0% fee. That does however mean for small cases they are getting paid very little and may make you wonder what corners they are cutting to be able to handle a case for such little pay. 


If you have chosen not to buy legal cover from your broker then they may be sorry to hear you were injured but they arent going to be obliged to assist you. In reality most will sell pass your details to a law firm as a favour but its no different from your mechanic advising you who to use (and most accident repair shops will also have accident management firms they sell pass people to) or a bloke down the pub. None take any liability for the lawyers actions down the line, law is a regulated space and has its own ombudsman etc. 

Aretnap

dubyah61 said:

Does ordinary car and motorbike insurance only cover the vehicle? 

Basically, yes. Car insurance covers the car and motorbike insurance covers the motorbike, hence the names.

Some of the better policies will include a small amount of cover for "extras". A lot of car insurance policies used to include cover for the car's contents up to an amount in the low hundreds - designed to cover a few tools and a satnav, the sort of things you might keep more or less permanently in the car. You'd still need separate insurance if you were carrying significant amounts of luggage or valuables in the car (usually as an extension on your home insurance). I imagine that a better motorbike policy might also include some cover for leathers/helmet etc. But motor insurance has gotten increasingly price-focussed thanks to price comparison sites and when people will change insurer to save a couple of pounds it's not surprising that insurers will reduce the extras that they cover to keep their premiums down as far as possible - I've certainly noticed that the "£250 of cover for the cars contents" section seems to be much less common these days.

By the same token most policies don't cover injuries, at least not to you. Some do add a small amount of cover, mostly so that they can include the words "personal injury cover" in their advertising, but it tends to be a fixed, small amount for very serious injuries only. A few thousand pounds if you lose a limb, that sort of thing, nothing for bruising, pain etc even if it does cause you time off work. The main route for a personal injury claim is from the at fault driver (if there is one) or from his insurance company.

dubyah61 said:

MSE you should publicise this - it seems if you don't tick the box and pay an extra £20 or £30 quid, you aren't covered at all - only your vehicle is! Have I got that right?

Having legal cover doesn't mean that you are covered against personal injury as such - your main policy still only covers the vehicle (and your liabilities to other people). What legal cover does is mean that if you try to claim from the at fault driver for injuries, or other losses that aren't covered by your own policy (like leathers etc) your insurer will provide a solicitor to help you with the process. If you don't have legal cover then you can still claim from the other driver, but you will need to either find a solicitor of your own, which could mean using the one your insurer "recommends" (ie sells your details to), or if your injuries are relatively minor you could attempt to deal with the third party insurer yourself.