Devon TRF Group Forum

RichT4 · Champion

Bike insurance extras - legal etc.

Bob Adams · Clubman A

Rich, I would say that Legal Expences Cover is an absolute must! It is normally a relatively small amount of money and something you may well need.

If you have an accident and the other person claims it was your fault when perhaps it wasn't, you are in a position to employ a solicitor to fight your case and Legal Expences Cover will pay the solicitor. If you hit a walker, a horse or damage someones property when you are out and they claim compensation from you, Legal Expences Cover will fight the case for you. If any kind of legal action is comenced against you in connection with your bike and you have to defend yourself in court, your own legal bills could clean you out financialy if you don't have Legal cover.

You may say that your insurer will do that anyway but all they will do is repair the vehicles if that is what they are contracted to do and little else. You only have to read the legal question in letters page of MCN to see how many time the panel solicitor will say "if you have legal expences cover.

If you are ever injured, your insurer will want to sent you to their own claims handler who is often paid a fixed fee to deal with your claim and therefore he will want to get rid of you as quickly as possible. With your own Legal cover, you can employ your own solicitor and believe me, it can make a huge difference to the amount of compensation you may receive.

I am renewing insurance on 2 bikes and my house and contents today and without question Legal Expences Cover will be included with both.

-- Edited by Bob Adams on Friday 24th of August 2012 12:10:09 PM

Mossy · Clubman B

Rich your requirement to pay your excess in a fault claim is not affected no matter if you have legal expense insurance or not. Legal expense insurance will not assist you in a fault claim.

I have read the information in your link from Confused.com and it is so blatantly covering up what is actually happening its unreal. Put it this way, when one pays their £20 or whatever to take out legal expense insurance all you are in fact doing is agreeing to use your insurer's panel solicitors to act on your behalf in the event of an accident where you have sufferred injury or financial loss.

Your insurer will pass on your claim to one of its solicitors who will then pay your insurer somewhere between £500-£800 as a referral fee for receiving your case (bearing in mind you have already paid your insurer £20). This system works as the insurers get shed loads of referral bonuses and the solicitors' a steady stream of work.

Consider this, it costs you nothing to instruct an appropriate solicitor that you have been recommeneded to or found in the yellow pages (provided they act on a 'no win no fee' agreement) should you need to instruct one. Why limit yourself to the few that your insurer say you should use?

I hope this is all clear. I work in a related industry and it pains me that this whole system is veiled. In short....no you do not need LEI as your insurer will no doubt be emphatic that you do....in their eyes they just see a nice fat referral fee.

Thats my 2 cents worth anyhoo.
Mossy

Bob Adams · Clubman A

Bob Adams wrote:
Rich, I would say that Legal Expences Cover is an absolute must! It is normally a relatively small amount of money and something you may well need.
If you have an accident and the other person claims it was your fault when perhaps it wasn't, you are in a position to employ a solicitor to fight your case and Legal Expences Cover will pay the solicitor. If you hit a walker, a horse or damage someones property when you are out and they claim compensation from you, Legal Expences Cover will fight the case for you. If any kind of legal action is comenced against you in connection with your bike and you have to defend yourself in court, your own legal bills could clean you out financialy if you don't have Legal cover.
You may say that your insurer will do that anyway but all they will do is repair the vehicles if that is what they are contracted to do and little else. You only have to read the legal question in letters page of MCN to see how many time the panel solicitor will say "if you have legal expences cover.
If you are ever injured, your insurer will want to sent you to their own claims handler who is often paid a fixed fee to deal with your claim and therefore he will want to get rid of you as quickly as possible. With your own Legal cover, you can employ your own solicitor and believe me, it can make a huge difference to the amount of compensation you may receive.
I am renewing insurance on 2 bikes and my house and contents today and without question Legal Expences Cover will be included with both.

-- Edited by Bob Adams on Friday 24th of August 2012 12:10:09 PM

Rich, can I just make it clear, Legal Expenses Cover is a policy taken out with a seperate specialist Insurer, the biggest player is probably DAS. If you have a look at their web site, you will se what I mean.

RichT4 · Champion

Mossy wrote:
Rich your requirement to pay your excess in a fault claim is not affected no matter if you have legal expense insurance or not. Legal expense insurance will not assist you in a fault claim.

Hi Mossy

I've just remembered the situation where this helped me but left me very angry at my own insurers. A driver reversed into me while in a B&Q car park. I had my car repaired as I was Fully Comp but had to send in a cheque to cover my excess. I had to wait a couple of months to get my money back as the third party was on company cover and the company just ignored it and refused the return any questioners or admit liability. My own insurers did not force the issue as they said "after 6 weeks your LEC will kick in and they will fight it", which they did and I got my money back. Thing is, if I didn't have LEC what would have happened - surely my own insurance company would have had to get off their lazy butts and fight the case (or at least got through the motions) and I could possibly have had my excess money back sooner.

The only value I can now see in LEC is to fight for injury claims & clothing/equipment damage that may not be covered by the vehicle insurance policy - not sure what value I would put on that...

Nowadays I find that when the fault is un-questionably with the third party, their insurance company will go out of their way to settle it with you directly. That's been my most recent experience anyway.

RichT4 · Champion

Bob Adams wrote:
Rich, can I just make it clear, Legal Expenses Cover is a policy taken out with a seperate specialist Insurer, the biggest player is probably DAS. If you have a look at their web site, you will se what I mean.

Hi Bob - I'm looking their DASDrive cover now so will have a bit of a read and a think.

Cheers Guys. wink

Wheely · Expert

Interestingly I was looking into this this morning.
I was under the impression it wasn't really worth much - but after reading plenty of one line information I make an informed decision it is worth having.
I did check my AA recovery policy as I thought this kind of thing also used to be included but it appears not.
When you mentioned about recovering your excess, I don't think your insurers would have any obligation to do anything so it would have been between you and the 3rd parties insurers - who would have fobbed you off forever.

Bob Adams · Clubman A

Wheely wrote:
Interestingly I was looking into this this morning.
I was under the impression it wasn't really worth much - but after reading plenty of one line information I make an informed decision it is worth having.
I did check my AA recovery policy as I thought this kind of thing also used to be included but it appears not.
When you mentioned about recovering your excess, I don't think your insurers would have any obligation to do anything so it would have been between you and the 3rd parties insurers - who would have fobbed you off forever.

That is correct Wheely and no one is better at "fobbing off" than insurance companies. It is also worth remembering that you generally buy your insurance from the nice friendly broker who wants your business but when you make a claim it goes straight to the hard nosed claims investigator working for the underwriter with whom your insurance will have been placed. He is in no way connected with selling insurance and his target is to keep the value of claims as low as possible.

It is all a bit of a nighmare, I have just renewed my 2 bike policy with Carol Nash, underwritten by Aviva..Norwich Union that was, after faffing about with Devitt who, after taking all my details couldn't do a 2 bike policy. When I tried to seperate policies, I could'nt get my No Claims on the second bike. Hastings answer with an automated message then leave you hanging while you wait for a human being.. Grrrrrrr

Simmo · Expert

I had a SMIDSY a few years ago and a solicitor friend wasn't happy with the so called legal expense cover I had with my insurance so we didn't use it. Just went down the losing side pays all legal expenses and see who blinks first route. The other side lost.

Can't remember who the insurance company was or who provided the expenses 'cover'. I think it is best to get things separately.