As a writer covering financial products, even I underestimated just how handy legal cover can be. That was until it was brought home to me following an accident at a hotel’s swimming pool.

When you’re sorting out your home insurance, you might notice an option called legal expenses cover and wonder whether it’s worth the extra cost. Although it’s not essential, it can make a real difference if you find yourself facing a legal issue that’s expensive or stressful to deal with on your own.

Legal expenses cover, sometimes called legal protection or family legal protection, is an optional add-on you can include with your home insurance, or in some cases it’s already built into certain policies.

It’s designed to help with the cost of legal advice and representation if you need to pursue a dispute, or even defend one. That means you won’t have to pay thousands of pounds out of pocket for a solicitor or court fees. Each insurer will have its own maximum limit for the legal costs they will cover (as an example, with LV= it’s £100,000).

Policies will typically provide support such as:

  • A 24/7 legal advice helpline.

  • Templates for important legal documents such as employment issues, boundary disagreements and disputes about goods you have purchased.

  • Support with things like employment rights, powers of attorney and disputes over services and goods.

There’s quite a range, and it goes beyond just property disputes. Depending on your policy, legal cover can help if you find yourself dealing with:

Personal injury or clinical negligence

For example, if you slip or trip somewhere, or if something goes wrong during a medical procedure, legal cover may help you pursue compensation without paying solicitor fees out of your own pocket.

Employment contract disputes

Situations such as being unfairly selected for redundancy, facing discrimination at work, or disagreements over contracts can be stressful. Legal cover provides support and guidance to protect your rights.

Property protection

For instance, if you have a boundary dispute with a neighbour or damage to your property caused by a neighbouring tree (when not covered by your buildings insurance), legal cover can help you resolve the issue professionally and fairly.

Consumer or contract issues

If a retailer sells faulty goods or provides unsatisfactory services, legal cover can assist you in pursuing a claim to get what you’re owed without bearing the legal costs yourself.

Identity fraud

If an organisation mishandles your personal data and you suffer a financial loss, legal cover can help you take action to recover what you’ve lost and protect yourself from further problems.

My story: how legal cover helped me

I’ve always ticked the box to include legal cover on my home insurance, mostly just to be on the safe side. I didn’t really think much about how it could help me, until one day it really did.

While walking from a hotel’s swimming pool into the ladies changing rooms, I slipped on dangerously wet flooring and suffered a nasty head injury. After having my head glued at hospital and a few days of concussion, I decided to make a personal injury claim on a no-win-no-fee basis.

My solicitor checked straight away whether I had legal cover through my home insurance. Because I did, I was told that all the legal costs for pursuing the claim, including solicitor fees and the medical report, were covered by my policy.

Normally, under a no-win-no-fee arrangement, a solicitor would take up to 25% of any compensation awarded as their fee. But with legal cover in place, I was able to keep 100% of the money that was awarded to me after the owners accepted liability.

This sounds great, so why isn’t it always included automatically?

Unlike buildings or contents insurance, your mortgage lender or landlord won’t typically require you to have legal cover in place. That’s why some policies include it and others offer it as an add-on you choose to pay for.

As legal disputes don’t happen every day, some people do skip this extra cover. Perhaps they don’t feel concerned about an unexpected future legal issue, or they don't want to pay the slightly higher premium. But the peace of mind can be valuable, particularly when solicitor fees can run into hundreds of pounds per hour.

It’s equally important to know the limits. As an example, one leading insurer’s legal cover policies won’t help with things like:

  • Claims with a low chance of success: If a claim is unlikely to succeed, or the insurer’s chosen legal firm doesn’t believe they can achieve a positive outcome, it won’t be covered. Legal cover is there to support realistic claims, not every dispute.

  • Claims where costs outweigh the benefit: For example, spending £2,000 on legal fees for a £500 dispute isn’t covered. The idea is to make sure legal cover is cost-effective and focused on meaningful claims.

  • Family and personal law matters: Divorce, separation, child custody, wills, probate and trusts are usually excluded. Legal cover is aimed at disputes where the insurer can help resolve practical financial or contractual issues.

  • Business-related claims: Anything connected to running a business is generally not included. Legal cover is designed for personal issues, so professional or commercial disputes fall outside its scope.

  • Landlord disputes with tenants: If you’re a landlord, disputes with tenants aren’t usually covered unless you have specific landlord legal expenses insurance, taken with landlord home insurance.

  • Council Tax disputes: Disagreements with your local authority over Council Tax aren’t included.

So it’s not a catch-all, and you should always read your policy wording so you know exactly what’s in, and out, of scope.

When might it be worth it?

Whether you need legal cover depends on your circumstances, but here are a few useful guide-posts:

  • If you’d rather avoid covering hefty legal bills yourself if something goes wrong, it can be good value as a small add-on, and may be as little as £30 a year or less.

  • If you’d like access to expert legal advice whenever you need it, a helpline can be worth its weight in gold even before you go near a courtroom.

  • If you don’t already have similar legal support through another source, like legal aid, unions or other policies.

Final verdict: do you really need it?

You’re not legally obliged to have legal expenses cover with your home insurance. But for many people, it’s one of those extras that feels really good to have when life throws a curveball.

If – like me – you value peace of mind and would rather not have to pay solicitor fees out of your own pocket, legal cover can be a practical, affordable safety net.

And since some policies already include it as standard, it’s well worth checking your existing cover before you decide.

Our expert panel review all content. Learn more about our editorial standards.

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