Legal Cover on Insurance quotes

[Hightower]

For many years Insurance companies have been offering a Legal cover as an extra on Insurance quotes for our cars.

It seems like this is car/policy specific ie. Legal protection only valid for that insurance policy, so in other words if you insure two cars like I do then you'll need two legal protection policies.

What I'm asking here is, is there anyone offering general legal protection in one policy that would protect me for both of my cars and boat?

[Poly]

do you know anyone who has ever successfully used that bit of their policy?

[Nos4r2]

Originally Posted by Polwart

do you know anyone who has ever successfully used that bit of their policy?

Yes,me. Someone rear-ended me a few years ago.

However, the policy sent me to a company that normally does 'no win no fee' and they were somewhat lazy about persuing it.

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Polwart

do you know anyone who has ever successfully used that bit of their policy?

I've used them in the past and my Father successfully claimed for whiplash and loss of earnings though this type of policy several years ago.

I'm just thinking that if you could condence two of these policies into one for a number of cars, then a saving can be made.

[PeterM]

Hi Andy - not that I have ever seen its always done on a individual basis per car / boat etc . As you say alot of this is done by the same companies as no win no fee work . Common ones commercially are the likes of DAS ( motor & marine) , Angel Assistance & also Car crash line.

To get the one cover just does not seem worth it for the market to make up & woudl cost as much as the 10-15 quid per policy anyway , but have alook at your household insurance as a lot of cover can be duplicated on this sort of stuff between policies .

Pete

[Hightower]

I'll have a look at the house insurance documents tomorrow Pete.

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by Polwart

do you know anyone who has ever successfully used that bit of their policy?

Yes - I've used it as well. It was a very straightforward case, and because I was claiming against the other party, the legal firm appointed by the insurers was able to claim their fees from the other party, completely separate to my claim. So the net benefit of the legal cover, to me, was nil. I could have appointed my own solicitor at no cost to myself.

What would be more interesting - has anyone ever successfully used one of these policies to defend themselves from a claim and successfully avoided a very large expense? Presumably the insurance company/underwriter normally deals with this? So again, net benefit of the policy would be nil?

Another interesting fact - the solicitors on the preferred supplier list to these legal protection insurers pay for the privilege. So it seems to me that you pay for the insurer for the policy, the solicictor pays the insurer for the work supplied to him, so the insurer gets paid twice for a policy that never has to pay out. Nice.

Ah... but sometimes they may not win.

True, but this is covered as well, as part of the terms and conditions state that they reserve the right to drop any case that looks unwinnable.

[ianhappy]

Hi,

The RAC offered me a separate legal cover policy when I renewed my breakdown cover, and they said it is not just for vehicle-specific issues. I haven't had time to read it thoroughly yet - might be worth investigation though? Will report back when I've read it.

Ta,
Ian

[Erin]

I've just had this come through with my boat renewal policy. It appears to be limited primarily to acting on your behalf, for an accident that wasn't you fault, to make what I assume would be a civil claim against an uninsured other person. Not really sure where I'd benefit, unless an uninsured person injured me or my boat, and I couldn't be bothered to pursue it myself.

You more or less require legal advice these days to determine whether the 'legal protection' policy is worth having. I presume it works on the scare mongering tactic of 'you're never quite sure'.