The car insurance information contained within these pages is based on information supplied by The Claims Guru, a site packed with useful information about the inner workings of insurance companies and their products.
Car Insurance Add-Ons - Legal Protection
ULR stand for Uninsured Loss Recovery. Even with a so called fully comprehensive policy you will suffer financial losses that are not covered by your policy. Here is a list of some of the more common losses you might suffer, but there are plenty more. Any loss you suffer not covered by your policy is called an uninsured loss, such as :
- your policy excess (or damage to your car if not comprehensive cover)
- postage and telephone calls
- alternative transport - e.g. bus/train fairs hire car
- injury
- loss of income
- inconvenience
"I was unable to stop in time and my car crashed into the other vehicle. The driver and passengers then left immediately for a vacation with injuries."
Extracts taken from actual claim forms submitted to
a number of UK car insurance companies
For legal reasons, if you buy this cover it will be supplied by a different insurer, or different division of your insurer to your main motor policy cover. In the old days nearly everyone bought their insurance cover through an insurance broker. Your broker would undertake recovery of these losses for you or refer you to a solicitor.
Since the advent of the legal expense insurer, this has become a boom industry with all sorts of firms springing up to cash in. A legal expense insurer will provide the legal costs of recovering your uninsured losses. Some will do it in house with their own staff, others have a panel of solicitors who will undertake the work. Some insurers provide a free legal help line attached to this cover. It will give you 24 hour telephone advise on any legal matter to do with your car.
The cost of this cover is actually very cheap. The only trouble is that where you buy it off a broker, they take commission which pushes up the cost to you. But it is another of those essentials in my view.
I've lost count of the number of times that people involved in an accident have found out the hard way how foolish they were in not taking up this cover when they had the chance.
To cater for this, the legal protection industry is now supplying a product you can buy, at a price, after the event. Whether they have their own in-house teams of staff or use out-sourced solicitors they will only attempt recovery where there is clear evidence that someone else is at fault. But it can take time. You have to be patient. It can take several weeks, if not months, to prize money out of another insurer.
Where there is an injury, you are looking at months, perhaps years before you receive anything. This is mainly due to the length of time it takes nature to heal injuries. If necessary, your legal expense insurer will pay for your case to go through the civil law courts. But there is a limit to how much they will pay in legal costs. This is the sum insured. Have a look and see what this is on your policy. You will find that you can get a lot of legal help for the amount involved. There are several conditions and exclusions attached to this add on policy. Surprise Surprise.
Some insurers provide a free legal help line attached to this cover. It will give you 24 hour telephone advise on any legal matter to do with your car.
