I have to renew the car insurance next month and legal expenses insurance always included in the quoted premium.
I dont buy it on the basis that if I have a problem I would prefer to choose my own solicitor to deal with the problem as I have done in the past and on my own terms rather than have one appointed by my insurance company who may not be acting in my interests.
I save myself the additional premium but what do you folks think. Is it false economy?
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The firms appointed by Insurance compainies are generally pretty good. A health warning here - we do Insurance work do I would say that wouldn't I ? In my defence we generate a lot of repeat business through the clients we pick up from insurance companies. Like everything else out there its a lottery. If you have a good and trusted solicitor by all means save the premium, but however cheap they are it could cost a packet. SWMBO was offered legal protection at £20.00 for her little bike, she snubbed it cos she knows that she could bully me into doing it for nothing.
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I am sure that the firms appointed by insurance companies are good at what they do PU but the question is are they acting in my or the insurance companies best interests?
I have only ever resorted to using a solicitor twice in my life for non house conveyancing work and both times came out with a good settlement where the solicitor included their fees in the costs.I do not see the point of pursuing a hopeless case and would make my decision as to whether to go to law on the facts of the particular incident.
I have never had to go to court because I have found that showing you are not going to cave in by means of a solicitors letter usually does the trick if someone is trying it on.
Perhaps you folks out there can convince me otherwise. Have you ever had to use the legal expenses insurance and with what result ?
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I don't think there is an issue with their expertise, but the amount of persistance that the insurer is willing to pay for is quite low.
And typically the insurer is not prepared to pay for much real work or persistence much beyond admin and letters.
Depends how much that is worth to you really. Any significant chasing or pushing of people you will have to do yourself whether or nto you have this insurance.
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Precisely my thoughts Mark , but then I am interested to hear what other peoples experience has been and whether they have been supported all the way on a tricky matter or subjected to the usual 'settle as cheaply as we can' attitude.
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Posibly not directly relevant, but a friend's experience last year led me to decide that legal protection was well worth having on any insurance policy.
She was quite outrageously dismissed from her job, and started contacting solicors before she realised she could get it all covered on her household legal insurance. After some discusion about what legal expertise was needed, the insurers agreed to put a really tenacious solicitor on the case, with relevant expertise, and the nasty employers settled very favourably rather than risk their antics being exposed in court. Without legal insurance, she might not have been able to bring the case.
That persuaded me that legal insurance was one of those things you might never be required, but that when you did need it you'd really need it. Very good value, IMO.
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I had an accident in the mid 80's while driving in Denmark on my UK insurance, my renewal was due while the claim was being processed, my insurer insisted that I pay the full premium, i.e. no no claims bonus, until the claim was sorted out. I had been paying £10-00 a year for legal protection, got them on the case, got all my uninsured expences paid, no claims bonus refunded etc, saved me a fortune.
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From personal experience I cannot rcommend it highly enough.
Had an accident in 2001 but all uninsured losses were recovered, including the car. the total payout to me was around £2500. There was an injury element in there as well plus they even managed to recover the cost of a temporary car (Lada Riva depreciation of around £150 in 6 months or so).
I say it is about at essential as car insurance itself for the measly sum they ask you for it.
Anyone who thinks they can save £20 or so whilst spending £000s running a car on this is really looking at a false economy.
Mark is not wrong in what he says though, sometimes claims adminstrators don't try as hard as they might when chasing down a claim. I was lucky in that because I had a suspected injury my case was passed to a firm of very competent solicitors (Dawson Hart IIRC). My sister OTOH who was the front car in a rear end shunt was fobbed off for months and it was even sugested that she settled for 50 50. She persisted and she won through though.
Not paying the extra on the basis you may not get a good service doesn't really make sense though.
H
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LEI costs between zero (Elephant automatically includes it) and about £25.
You are entitled under an EU directive to choose your legal representation. Insurers don't like this but they don't really have much choice and your chosen solicitor will be very clear on this point when they represent you.
I take the point that, for the insurers, it is money for old rope, as any legal costs will be recovered if successful. However it does mean that you don't have to find the cash for after-the-event insurance, a lawyer will know from the outset that they are going to get paid and so may actually try *harder* (assuming that the case is realistic) and it certainly simplifies things for you in the event that you are involved in an accident and need to claim.
As Hugo says, £20 is not a lot of money in relation to the overall cost of running a car and whilst LEI won't let you achieve something you couldn't anyway, since the introduction of conditional fee agreements, it does provide practical benefits in simplifying the initial claim process if anything does arise.
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