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Although most car insurance will cover the cost of fixing or replacing your car after an accident, it might not stretch to any legal bills and other expenses you might face as a result. However, by adding motor legal protection – also known as car insurance legal cover – as a bolt-on to your policy, it’s possible to insure these costs. It’s entirely up to you whether you buy legal cover on your car insurance but it can provide valuable peace of mind.
Motor legal protection – or car insurance legal cover – can help you with any legal bills you might face after a car accident that wasn’t your fault. This might include, for example, taking the driver that caused the accident to court and pursuing your losses.
Although your car insurance will cover the cost of repairs to your vehicle, or replace it if it’s written off, you might find you incur a raft of additional costs, which insurance companies refer to as ‘uninsured losses’.
These can include:
Motor legal protection doesn’t provide compensation for these losses, but it can help you take your case to court and pursue them by paying your legal expenses, such as court fees and solicitor bills.
It may also pay any additional repair costs for your car, if you don’t have comprehensive car insurance.
Going one step further, some policies offer motoring prosecution defence, which will help with costs if you are prosecuted for a motoring defence and need legal representation.
Motor legal protection typically provides cover for legal fees up to £100,000. However, it’s important to note that the insurer may reject your claim. This might happen if:
Some comprehensive car insurance policies will include motor legal cover as standard, but most will offer it as a bolt-on that you can add to your car insurance for an additional fee. Always check the terms of your policy carefully to ensure you know what is covered as standard. You will also normally need to use a solicitor nominated by your insurer.
You might also hear motor legal protection insurance described as legal car insurance, motor legal expenses insurance and motor legal assistance. It shouldn’t be confused with legal expenses insurance – this is sometimes sold alongside other policies such as home insurance and covers a broader range of legal disputes, including your employment rights, problems with faulty goods and services and injuries that were the result of accidents that weren’t your fault.
Uninsured losses can come as a surprise after an accident – especially if you weren’t at fault and you’ve got fully comprehensive cover on your car. But the reality is that a nasty accident might leave you needing to take unpaid time off work, or force you to shell out for taxis or hire cars to get around while your car is being replaced or fixed. If you, or a passenger, were seriously injured in a collision, you might even need to pursue a personal injury claim. To reclaim any of these costs it’s likely you’ll need to take the other driver to court, but without motor legal protection, you would need to pay the legal bills yourself.
It’s not only in the event of accidents that legal car insurance can come in handy. Motor legal insurance can also help if you are accused of a motoring offence, or if you are ever involved in a dispute when buying, selling or repairing a car.
While it’s a legal requirement to have car insurance to drive on UK roads, there’s no compulsion to buy motor legal protection. Whether or not you buy it depends on how worried you are about paying these costs yourself.
It might not be an issue if you can afford to pay legal fees yourself (which could run into thousands of pounds) or are not concerned about the unexpected expenses you might incur after an accident. However, if these costs do worry you, paying a little extra for legal cover on car insurance could provide you with valuable peace of mind.
You can add motor legal protection when you take out a new car insurance policy or renew an existing one. You can even add it on part way through the policy year, although there may be a small administration fee to pay.
But, before you pay extra for car insurance with legal cover, it’s worth checking that you don’t already have some protection in place.
For example, you may well have some legal expenses cover included with your home insurance policy, as an added benefit with a premium bank account, or as part of an employee benefits package you might have with work.
If you discover you already have some cover, you can save yourself a few quid, but it’s still worth checking the scope of the policy to ensure it’s up to scratch and comparable with what is available from your car insurance provider.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| By covering your legal fees, motor legal protection can help you pursue any uninsured losses you might face after an accident. This could be anything from loss of earnings to transport costs or a personal injury claim and, depending on the circumstances, you could get a sizable settlement. Without motor legal protection you may not be able to afford to pursue these losses through the courts. | Car insurance premiums have risen substantially over the last year and adding motor legal protection to your policy will boost your costs even further |
| You may also get help with legal fees if you are prosecuted for a motoring offence or have face legal challenges when buying or selling a car | There is no guarantee that the insurance company will accept your claim. If a solicitor concludes that you are unlikely to win your case, the insurer will reject your claim |
| Lawyers’ fees can be sky high, particularly if your case is complex, meaning legal cover on car insurance could potentially save you thousands of pounds | You cannot claim for legal costs that result from an accident that was your fault |
| Legal cover on car insurance is affordable and easy to arrange | Your claim may also be rejected if the amount you are claiming is less than the likely cost of your legal fees |
| Many motor legal protection policies also include free 24/7 legal helplines to assist you with your dispute and give you quick and easy access to legal advice | Even if you have legal cover on your car insurance and your claim is accepted, there is no guarantee that you will win your case and recoup your losses |
| Cover will apply to you as well as any named drivers on your car insurance policy | |
| Some car insurance provide motor legal cover as standard |
Although you might be wary of making your car insurance any more expensive than it already is, adding motor legal protection is relatively cheap.
Legal cover on car insurance can typically be arranged for between £15 and £35 a year depending on the insurance provider in question. Legal costs are expensive and policies typically provide cover worth up to £100,000.
Before you add it to your policy though, it’s always worth balancing the total cost with the price of a comprehensive car insurance policy that comes with motor legal protection as standard to ensure you get the best value for money.
This is what you need to do to submit a motor legal protection claim and what will happen next:
If you do not want to have legal cover with your car insurance, you can ask your insurer to have it removed. However, it’s important to think carefully before you do. Motor legal protection is usually affordable and could prove to be a very worthwhile investment if you end up in an accident that wasn’t your fault and out of pocket due to uninsured losses.
Legal fees can quickly spiral and without motor legal protection you may not be able to afford the legal advice you’ll need to reclaim your losses.
Unfortunately not, motor legal protection will only pay out for accidents that were not your fault. However, it may still pay out for any legal bills you incur if you are prosecuted for a motoring offence.
No-win no-fee solicitors may be able to help you pursue uninsured losses, if you don’t have motor legal protection. However, a chunk of any payout you receive would be deducted to pay the solicitor. Motor legal protection is much cheaper and you would receive 100 per cent of your payout.
There are also no guarantees that a no-win, no-fee solicitor would take on your case. Again, the firm would need to be confident that it’s strong enough to win.
It is possible to buy motor legal protection as a standalone policy – it does not need to be linked to your car insurance. However, you might find it easier and less hassle to combine the two and deal with one provider and one renewal date for both.
If you’re considering a separate motor legal protection policy, you should always check that the price and coverage compares favourably with that provided by your car insurance provider.
