Insurance question - legal cover

Every year I blindly tick the legal cover box and pay the extra, if it's not included, but I've no idea really if it's worth it. This time around, it's going to cost me the equivalent of 20% of the insurance premium. This seems crazy for an add-on.

Can any legal or insurance experts give their opinion on whether it's worth it please

[Dave20046]

Last time I paid for it (actually I wangled it free in the end but almost paid for it) they just set me up with a no win no fee solicitor when I needed it anyway. I think it's a bit of a con when done like that, but if they use a decent solicitor then not so much. (they usually say they insure you upto £150k of legal fees or something). Anyway it's usually something you can just ask them to chuck in for free.

I never pay. I'm no good at personal injury and if I had to sue somebody I'd pass it on to a friend's practice, Howard Shah here in Shrewsbury. They do conditional fee and are good at it. However I got free legal expenses cover just for asking for a quotation from someone.

With no win no fee, it's not that straightforward. If you sue someone and lose, then you usually have to pay the other side's costs. You get around this by an 'after the event' insurance policy. Someone has to pay for it - you. With legal expenses insurance, you wouldn't have to because the LEI does this.

Incidentally, most ATE insurers now set very strict criteria for qualifying. One insurer, Axa, has paid out a fortune in claims and is trying to recover it by suing several solicitors for being over optimistic on their assessment of the likelihood of success of individual claims. The sums involved are huge - around £100m. This is one reason why i don't do conditional fee wrk, I don't see why I should accept the risk of not getting paid AND the risk of an insurer suing me. Solicitors who do ATE insurance work are finding that their professional indemnity insurance premiums are soaring to cover the risk of an ATE insurer claim.

Because of the gradual tightening of criteria, it might be difficult -in all but the most clear cut cases - to obtain ATE cover. This is where the LEI comes in handy.

Ed

[Littlepeahead]

There is something about this in RiDE magazine this month - in a whole feature about small print. Worth a read as they seem to suggest it isn't worth it, as in the event you were in an accident that wasn't your fault then lots of legal companies would be happy to take on your case for a fee or percentage.

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by eviltwin

Can any legal or insurance experts give their opinion on whether it's worth it please

I'm not a legal expert, but I'll give you my point of view on it.

Just after I passed my driving test. I stopped on a roundabout to give way to traffic on my right. The person following my didnt and shunted the rear end of my parents car. He did quite alot of damage, new boot lid etc etc.

I got his details and drove home and told my dad what had happend.

Turns out the lad who drove into me didnt have any insurance. He had taken out a policy, paid via direct debit for one installment and then cancelled the direct debit.

My dad was Fully Comprehensive so the car would have be repaired no matter what, but the legal protection company went after the driver that hit me through the courts, it took them along time but eventually they got him into court and the court found in my insurance companies favour and he was forced to cough up for the damage he had caused. He coudlnt afford to pay it all back so paid it off in installments every month, Every time he missed a payment, he ended up back in court again.

Now if I had been third party no way could I have afforded or taken the time to do all of that to get my car repaired.

2nd occurance was when I was driving along and someobdy pulled out in front of me. Now my insurance company decided that this wasnt my fault ( she admited fault at the scene, said she never checked her mirrors or indicated and she pulled out without looking and wasnt paying attention, and decided she didnt want to turn right anymore and pulled across into the main carrigeway right in front of me. )

I was phoned by the a solicitor asking if I wanted to persue a personal injury claim, I didnt as I wasnt injured but I did tell them that having my car off the road for 6 weeks whilst the claim was sorted out and the car repaired had been a complete pain in the butt. I ended up getting a cheque to cover my expenses over that time and to make up for the whole inconveinance of the whole thing. It wasnt much money but it was a nice surprise when the cheque arrived in the post.

So now I take the legal protection every time... its not much money and you never know when it might come in handy...

[ophic]

Agree with Fizz. My bike off last year was deemed to be the fault of the other driver, even though we didn't make contact. The whole thing was handled seamlessly by my insurance company, bike fully repaired, 80% of the cost of my damaged bike gear refunded, and a very good injury payout for what was essentially a bruised leg. I wasn't even particularly intending to claim for injuries - it's not something I view as honourable unless it restricts my mobility or would cause discomfort for the rest of my life.

Now I'm not saying I couldn't have done this through a no-win-no-fee solicitor, but I'll pay my £15 extra (or whatever it cost) every year just for the sheer convenience of it.

[Dave20046]

Well worth asking for them to chuck it in free when buying (after reading the above), I say something like "I'll be looking to buy right now if you could chuck the legal expenses in". Last time I forgot to buy it and they rang me up after saying, would you like to buy legal insurance, I said I should have it as the advisor promised me it for free when I bought the policy - they sent me out my little card the next day

[dyzio]

Originally Posted by Ed

However I got free legal expenses cover just for asking for a quotation from someone.
Ed

The bike insurer does that.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Ed

However I got free legal expenses cover just for asking for a quotation from someone.
.

The Bike insurer
I have said else where that it's not worth having http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=142867
However I am using legal exps cover at the moment so I would change that to say it's not worth paying fr but definitely worth having the option if you can get it for free* - so get a quote from the bike insurer

*Low value claims you won't be able to get NWNF solicitors interested

Thanks for the input guys. Seems the upshot is that it's worth having, if just for peace of mind...but for free! So Stu I've taken you advice and now have my free legal cover just for using the bike insurer's comparison service.

Cheers