# Legal expenses



## Darlofan

Just renewed my insurance, another £100 saved on renewal quote:doublesho

Getting the comparison quotes got me thinking about the extras offered. One being legal expenses, does anyone take it as well? What exactly does it give you extra?


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## Shiny

In summary, it covers the legal expenses potentially incurred in claiming for uninsured losses, such as excess, loss of earnings, hire car costs, personal injury.

If your claim is successful, the legal costs are paid by the third party. However, if you are unsuccesful, the Legal Expenses policy will pay out the legal expenses (and the third party legal expenses). 

If you buy it with your car insurance, it costs circa £30 and is called Before The Event Insurance (BTE). If you buy it after an accident, it is After The Event Insurance (ATE). You are only required to pay the cost of ATE if your claim is unsuccesful, but the costs could be up to £500 depending on the solicitor.


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## Andy from Sandy

I always take it. You never know how big a bill a solicitor might ring up.



> Legal cover provides financial protection against legal fees and losses following an accident that was not your fault. It is used to reclaim uninsured losses not covered by your standard car insurance policy. For example if someone sues you or you need to go to court to get money back from an uninsured driver.


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## Shiny

Andy from Sandy said:


> For example if someone sues you


That's a Legal Defence cover, not all Motoring Legal Expenses will include this. Your own Insurers would normally defend any case brought against you by a third party as a result of a motoring accident.


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## Dipesh

Me too, for how much it costs, better to have than not to have.


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## MDC250

LEI policies here are not quite what they are on the Continent. I suspect over time we will actually move more towards their model. Higher cost but better provision.

Unless it is worth the Solicitors time, how good a service do you think you get for a £30 policy? Hourly charges are typically north of £200 an hour + VAT.


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## fatdazza

I was glad of mine a couple of years ago.

Lorry swiped my back end when changing lanes and it was going to be my word against his as no witness. Insurer wouldn't pursue it, but the solicitor appointed by the insurance cover was prepared to go to small claims court to recover my excess (and more importantly restore my no claims). Solicitor issued papers and lorry driver backed down and admitted responsibility.


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## muzzer

I think i have it, i tend to include it just in case


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## Darlofan

Shiny said:


> In summary, it covers the legal expenses potentially incurred in claiming for uninsured losses, such as excess, loss of earnings, hire car costs, personal injury.
> 
> If your claim is successful, the legal costs are paid by the third party. However, if you are unsuccesful, the Legal Expenses policy will pay out the legal expenses (and the third party legal expenses).
> 
> If you buy it with your car insurance, it costs circa £30 and is called Before The Event Insurance (BTE). If you buy it after an accident, it is After The Event Insurance (ATE). You are only required to pay the cost of ATE if your claim is unsuccesful, but the costs could be up to £500 depending on the solicitor.


Great explanation however surely if a claim is settled as not my fault then any claim for excess, loss of earnings etc should be a formality and part of your standard insurance.


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## MDC250

No as they are uninsured losses unless you have the BTE LEI. Your motor policy basically covers your car (if fully comp).


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## Shiny

MDC250 said:


> Unless it is worth the Solicitors time, how good a service do you think you get for a £30 policy? Hourly charges are typically north of £200 an hour + VAT.


The £30 covers the policy cost for an insurer to indemnify the expenses should the solicitors lose the case. In most cases the solicitors will make a successfuly claim against the third party and their £200 or whatever an hour will be reimbursed by the third party insurers.

When it goes wrong, the Legal Expenses Insurer pays the costs from its pot of many £30 premiums. The £30 doesn't buy the solicitor's work, it covers £50k/£100k etc depending on policy cover if things don't go your way.

Solicitors won't normally take on a claim unless there is a good prospect of success, so it isn't too often a case goes against them.



MDC250 said:


> No as they are uninsured losses unless you have the BTE LEI. Your motor policy basically covers your car (if fully comp).


Spot on :thumb:


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## MDC250

Solicitors rarely (if ever) claim on the LEI policy when a case goes wrong and cases can and do go wrong more often than not for reasons completely outside of their control.

Recovery of standard costs is getting more and more limited in all areas of law not just personal injury, pushing things more and more towards damage based agreements and things become, dare I say more American.


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## Darlofan

Least of my problems now. Sent off proof of no claims to new insurers and they sent it back saying its not in my name. I am known by my middle name but with official things always use my first name. For some reason it looks like I used my middle name with last insurer and first name with new one!!!
I can see this causing issues


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## Gas head

For what its worth, my sister had the experience of not ticking the legal box on the insurance extras, this meant apart from permanent damage to her legs, a month in hospital, operations, and loss of earnings for 9 months or so this is how the insurance company proceeded.
personal injury claim went initially to a claims firm not a solicitor, they wanted 30% of a potentially large claim just for risk, and they were to claim off the other party for legal expenses as well, the person dealing with it wasn't even legally trained.
phoned round a list of solicitors from the law society most would not take the case privately even though the police were to prosecute the other party (and have since had a successful prosecution), as they only took referrals from insurance companies.
a big thanks to the person on this forum who pmd me who works for a local solicitors who took on the case which after 16 months is still ongoing due to the extent of the injuries and still has some time before the matter is settled

eye opener just for 30 quid or so especially as my sister drives defensively never speeds etc. (she was tee boned),


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## MDC250

That’s bad. Most firms will waive the deduction from from damages once the claim is over a certain value (£25k at the movement)as they are able to recover standard costs from the other side (charge on hourly basis or part thereof). 

Outside of the profession many won’t know that once a claim settles, a bill is prepared and submitted to the other side. It’s like a claim after the claim. Generally always disputed and the process goes bill, points of dispute, replies to points of dispute and then a provisional assessment of the bill if agreement can’t be reached in the meantime. That’s basically a Judge undertaking a paper exercise and giving an indication of what they would do at an actual detailed assessment hearing. At that point some settle but some run to the detailed assessment hearing itself. The process basically means going over every single thing done on the case and the Judge deciding was the 10 minute phone call reasonable or should it have taken 3 minutes. Did the call need to be done by a certain grade of fee earner who have different charge rates. Pre Covid it took a long while for the process to run and it’s longer again now. Not uncommon for it to take a year+ to get to the end of the process. A bigger claim can run 3,4, 5+ years and the disbursements (cost of things like expert reports) can run into the tens if not hundreds of thousands on a truly catastrophic claim. The firm would have to carry the cost of the disbursements, that often are paid before conclusion of the claim and all of the work in progress for all that time. Might get an interim payment on account of costs but not always.

I know of at least one big national firm that allegedly will charge their client any shortfall in costs/disbursements that they fail to recover from the other side. That doesn’t sit right with me.


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## grunty-motor

If you have AA breakdown (as a dedicated policy not through your insurance) you have some cover. 

I have never compared them side by side, but may be worth considering.


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