Understanding Legal Protection Insurance: Types, Considerations, and Alternatives

Legal protection insurance is available for private, professional, transport and residential areas. The individual areas can be insured individually, but insurance for the professional module is only possible in combination with the private area. It rarely makes sense to get insurance for all areas, says Elke Weidenbach, insurance officer at the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Center. Many areas of life could not be insured. In addition, insurers do not even include cases that occur frequently or can be very expensive, says Weidenbach. “It’s not fully comprehensive insurance,” says the lawyer.

For most private individuals, the transport sector is most worthwhile, as that is where most of the damage occurs, says Weidenbach. Basically, anyone who is considering taking out insurance should ask themselves in which area a legal dispute could arise, how likely such a dispute is and what the sums are. Anyone who takes out disability insurance should consider taking out legal protection insurance as well, as this can be used to sue the disability insurance company if it doesn’t pay, says Weidenbach. Legal protection insurance can also be worthwhile for private individuals who do a lot of internet business.

You should check carefully what the tariff includes. The Stiftung Warentest, which regularly compares different insurance companies, advises making sure that the so-called contractual legal protection is insured and looking in the small print to see which cases are excluded. The contract should also include the clause “waiver of the plea of ​​pre-contractuality”, says Weidenbach. She advises a deductible of 150 euros. As a rule, an insurance sum of at least 300,000 euros makes sense. In addition, one should make sure that the so-called casting vote is part of the contract. The consumer advice center recommends getting confirmation in writing that the “General Conditions for Legal Protection Insurance” (ARB 2012) published by the General Association of the German Insurance Industry without obligation are being observed.

Anyone who takes out insurance for the private sector has to reckon with costs of between 250 and 300 euros per year, says Weidenbach. Depending on the area, further costs will be added. Tariffs differ according to insurance, whether you were previously involved in a legal dispute, and sometimes also according to age and place of residence. At DEVK, for example, the annual tariff for insurance for private and professional use starts at EUR 257.90 per year with a deductible of EUR 150 and at Allianz it is EUR 229.91. Traffic legal protection insurance for a family with a car is available from Arag from EUR 101.59 and from ADAC for members from EUR 108.42.

If you start two procedures within one year, the insurance company may terminate the contract. Even if you don’t start an expensive legal dispute, but only have several small cases, the insurer can kick you out, warns consumer advocate Weidenbach.

There are alternatives for many areas. Anyone who needs legal advice on occupational safety as an employee can join a trade union, and tenants can also get legal help from a tenants’ association. Legal protection insurance is not worthwhile for everyone, but one should always rely on good liability insurance, says Weidenbach.