Is legal cover worth taking?

Berger

Berger

Berger

Soldato
Joined
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Location
Wigan
As title really, shopping for insurance now.

Its "optional" on flexibell policys and their description says that in the event of a claim the legal cover will pursue your claim for you.

But surely this is their job anyway, and you could just use a third party to do this for you instead (helphire et al).

Worth taking or not?
 
Seen as the legal cover in my 3rd party claim would have surmounted to them sending my stuff to a solicitor and asking them to fix it, probubly not.
 
markyp23 said:
Is this not what protects you from paying out if you get sued for whiplash etc?
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Legal Expenses Cover generally covers drivers for those matters that aren't dealt with on motor insurance policies, including legal advice, costs and expenses to pursue such claims, or those arising from personal injury or death as a result of an accident while insured. Typical coverage would be the cost of legal fees up to £100,000 for reclaiming the uninsured losses.
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Since its only £25 it cant exactly be too amazing, a proper solicitor wont give you the time of day for that much so I guess they just pass you onto whoever they are getting backhanders from to give them work.

Hence why im asking just to confirm before I remove/add it.
 
In my experience "legal cover" means passing you over to an accident management company in the event of an accident that's not your fault. These places are usually just call centres with no solicitors involved.

If the third party disputes liability or plays hardball with them don't expect them to fight your corner - in my case after a couple of letters to the third party insurers they suggested settling 50-50. I wrote a strongly worded letter than this wasn't acceptable, and then they did nothing for about 12 months. I then complained, and they reffered my file to their "solicitors". The "solicitors" were just another claims handling company who called themselves solictors, but once they had the case give them their due they got me my money with interest after sending county court forms to the third party, but the whole thing dragged on for 2 years in the end.

If it happened again I'd give the third party 30 days to pay up and serve the forms on them myself. I don't bother paying for it any more, but if you do want it the RAC do it for £15 a year.
 
blueboy2001 said:
In my experience "legal cover" means passing you over to an accident management company in the event of an accident that's not your fault. These places are usually just call centres with no solicitors involved.

If the third party disputes liability or plays hardball with them don't expect them to fight your corner - in my case after a couple of letters to the third party insurers they suggested settling 50-50. I wrote a strongly worded letter than this wasn't acceptable, and then they did nothing for about 12 months. I then complained, and they reffered my file to their "solicitors". The "solicitors" were just another claims handling company who called themselves solictors, but once they had the case give them their due they got me my money with interest after sending county court forms to the third party, but the whole thing dragged on for 2 years in the end.
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Similar experience here with the accident management company i used, its been about 8 months now and its still not resolved as i wont let them settle 50:50. They really have been useless :(
 
Matt82 said:
legal cover means the insurance co appoints/instructs an 0800 claim to gain company for you

not worth it
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This.

You pay them your £25 and when you need to claim for whiplash, hirecar, etc. they pass your case on to Ambulance Chasers Direct or whoever, and they pay your insurance a referral fee of a few hundred quid for the case.

Just find your own accident management company and approach them directly if you need to.
 
Well thats decided then, the £25 saved from that can go on DOC if I decide to go with bell.

Got some phoning around to make today but nearly there!
 
I wonder how much the quality of "legal cover" varies between insurers? I.e. if you go to a "cheap and nasty" versus somewhere with more of a reputation for customer service quality?
 
regardless, its still money badly spent. you can appoint which ever ambulance-chaser company you like for the cost of a free telephone call.
 
I got to admit i was making sure Legal Cover was clicked when getting qoutes with bell, I just assumed it was to protect me in legal fee's if i had an accident, not for them to reffer me to some money grabbing claim company.

Guess they put it there for that reason to make extra money out of people like myself who was none the wiser about it.

Think I will unclick it when i do get my insurance shortly :D
 
I was insured TPFT on my 125 and had two non-fault claims. I paid £15 for my legal cover.

Through the Manchester based solicitors I had had a barrister sent for my court case against a taxi driver and they handled everything for me. All I had to do was post things and show up in court. All went in my favour and only cost me an afternoon plusall my costs were covered as I claimed for a new helmet and clothing damage. I also had a non-disputed claim where the driver admitted fault but the solicitors were used to recover costs of the bike (write off) and the clothing again.

I dunno if they still operate this way but I'd say my £15 went a hell of a long way considering my actual £400 premium. The broker was Rampdale, insurance company Equity Redstar.
 
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