Motor legal protection insurance in Germany: Essentials
- Motor legal protection insures you against the costs of traffic law disputes.
- This insurance is a valuable addition to motor vehicle liability insurance, which is mandatory for all drivers in Germany. Motor legal protection provides additional protection, primarily if you use your vehicle frequently, covering you in situations where liability insurance may not.
- You can take out traffic legal protection as a stand-alone policy or use it with other legal protection modules, allowing you to choose the coverage that best suits your needs. This flexibility empowers you to tailor your insurance to your specific situation. Most insurers offer their traffic legal protection through such combined policies.
- For expats in Germany, we recommend legal protection insurance from the FinTech insurance companies Feather and Getsafe. With their policies, you acquire legal protection in private, professional, and traffic law areas. You can book tenants’ legal insurance and extended criminal law coverage as additional modules. Both insurers offer their customers fully digitalized insurance policies, making it easy to manage your insurance needs, even if you need to be fluent in German. You can use their services entirely in English.
Traffic legal protection — always recommended for drivers
With legal protection insurance, you can insure legal costs in various areas of law. Many insurance companies combine private, employment, and traffic legal protection in one policy. If necessary, you can add additional modules to your insurance.
Legal protection for private law does not cover traffic law disputes. You can book traffic legal protection as a stand-alone policy or as part of a combined policy.
Traffic legal protection makes sense for anyone who frequently travels by car. For example, suppose you are involved in a car accident and need to claim damages or receive a traffic violation that you believe is unjust. In that case, traffic legal protection can help cover the legal costs. If you opt for a combined policy with traffic legal protection, you will receive comprehensive insurance in all areas of law relevant to your everyday life, reassuring you. A stand-alone traffic protection policy is sufficient if you are not worried about legal disputes outside traffic.
You can supplement your German car insurance with traffic legal protection. In Germany, all drivers are legally required to take out motor vehicle liability insurance. This car insurance covers personal injury, property damage, and financial loss that you cause to third parties. If you have caused an accident, your car insurance company will cover claims for damages, compensation for pain and suffering, legal fees, and court costs in connection with the claim.
The situation is different if you want to assert your claims for damages after a traffic accident or if the question of fault still needs clarification. In this case, you will initially have to pay your legal and court costs and, if applicable, expert costs. You will only be reimbursed by the opposing party if you win the court case. Legal protection ensures you can assert your rights without financial concerns, providing peace of mind.
You do not need motor legal protection if you are only as a pedestrian or cyclist on the road. Your private third-party liability insurance will cover any accident you cause, which you should also take out as an expat in Germany. However, private, professional, and tenant legal protection may also be helpful for you.
Benefits of Motor Legal Protection Insurance in Germany
With motor legal protection, you cover all legal areas relevant to traffic law. You are insured for your own vehicle and as the driver of a third-party vehicle, for example, a rental car or an e-scooter you borrowed. All drivers and passengers of your vehicle are also protected. Whether the insurance also covers trips in a company car depends on the tariff. If you have taken out motor legal protection cover for “all modes of transport,” the insurance will also cover you if you travel as a cyclist, pedestrian, or on public transport.
Motor legal protection cover
Motor legal protection covers your legal costs in the following areas of law:
- Tort law: your claims for damages and compensation for pain and suffering against third parties
- Criminal law: for example, if you are accused of hit-and-run or negligent bodily injury after an accident, or you have received a complaint for insulting other road users
- Contract and property law: legal disputes following the purchase of a new or used vehicle, for example, in the event of vehicle defects, legal disputes with garages, and in the case of car financing
- Tax law: Legal disputes regarding motor vehicle tax (the costs of legal representation regarding the tax authorities are only insured if they have been expressly included in the legal protection by the insurer)
- Administrative law: Legal disputes with authorities, such as fines or the withdrawal of driving licenses.
Legal costs covered
The insurance covers the following legal costs:
- Legal fees
- Court fees
- Costs for out-of-court mediation
- Expert witness costs
- Witness fees
- Enforcement costs
- Translation costs
- Travel expenses, for example, for lawyers and experts
General legal services
An excellent legal protection policy includes other general legal services, such as free legal advice from the insurance company’s lawyers. Many insurers offer their customers various online services and digital legal advice.
With legal protection, you are generally free to choose your lawyer — so you decide which lawyer you want to instruct for your case. Alternatively, you can also select a contract lawyer from your insurance company. This can have advantages such as reduced deductibles or faster appointments and processing times.
Before a legal dispute — be sure to obtain confirmation of cover
Before you instruct a lawyer, you need the insurance company’s confirmation of cover for this legal dispute. Otherwise, you risk having to bear the costs yourself.
The insurance company can refuse to cover the costs if there is no prospect of success. However, you can object to such a refusal.
Coverage limits in traffic legal protection
Some cases cannot be insured under traffic legal protection. These include:
Criminal proceedings for intentionally committed offenses
This includes, for example, illegal car racing, driving under the influence of alcohol, or coercion of other road users.
Some insurers offer extended criminal law coverage, initially covering legal fees and costs. However, after a guilty verdict, the insured must reimburse these costs. Extended criminal legal protection must often be agreed upon separately.
Claims for damages after an accident
Claims for damages after an accident and the defense against claims for damages fall within the scope of motor vehicle liability insurance — either your or the other party’s liability insurance. They are, therefore, not covered by the legal protection policy.
Legal disputes before the conclusion of the contract and during the waiting period
Traffic law disputes arising before the insurance contract’s conclusion or during the waiting period are not insured.
However, in contrast to other areas of law, there are frequently no waiting periods for traffic legal protection. Other policies only offer partial coverage for a certain period. For example, you can take out insurance without a waiting period if you have been the victim of an accident or have been accused of a criminal offense. For other benefits — for example, in contract and property law — a three- or six-month waiting period may apply.
Costs for motor legal protection
The insurance cost depends on various factors: If you have booked an overall package with several modules for your legal protection, the insurance will be pricier. You will also pay more if you choose a tariff covering family members.
The insurance costs are also influenced by deductibles, usually between €150 and €300. Some insurers grant no-claims discounts so that after a few years of insurance, no excess is due in case of a legal dispute. In some tariffs, no excess is charged if a legal dispute can be settled out of court.
According to Stiftung Finanztip, reasonable tariffs for private, professional, and traffic law cost singles between €255 and €680 and families between €238 and €818 per year. The deductibles were between €150 and €250. Pure traffic legal protection policies without additional modules are available from €68 per year.
These prices refer to the policies of established insurance companies. You can book powerful and significantly cheaper legal protection packages with modern digital insurers such as Feather and Getsafe.
Selection criteria for good legal protection policy
When choosing your insurance, you should pay particular attention to the following aspects:
- The price-performance ratio of the tariff: Insurance costs, excess, no-claims bonus, included benefits of the insurance company.
- Insured sum: In practice, there are significant differences here. We recommend an insured sum of at least €5 million; policies with unlimited cover within the European Union are better.
- Insurance cover abroad: A good insurance policy is valid throughout Europe. Worldwide legal protection is usually limited in time; coverage between one and three years is typical.
- Free legal advice: A good insurance policy provides free legal advice by telephone or digitally at no extra cost. Furthermore, such legal advice mustn’t be treated as a claim by the insurer, which would drive up the insurance costs due to the loss of no-claims discounts. If an insurer defines telephone legal advice from its lawyers as a claim, this could also lead to termination of the policy after more than two consultations per year.
Finding a good motor legal protection insurance
Numerous insurance companies offer motor legal protection. Rate calculators, independent product evaluations, or advice from an insurance broker can help you choose an insurance company and tariff.
The fully digital legal protection insurance policies from FinTech insurers Feather and Getsafe are currently among the best-performing products on the German market. They are also ideal for expats in Germany, as both companies offer their services in both German and English.
In addition to their legal protection policies, both providers have various other insurances in their portfolio — for example, private liability insurance and supplementary dental insurance — and Feather also offers comprehensive private health insurance and temporary health insurance for expats.
Feather
Feather’s legal protection insurance is available from €13.51 per month/€162.12 per year. You can calculate your offer on the company’s website.
The standard policy combines private, professional, and traffic legal protection. You can optionally supplement it with legal expenses insurance for tenants and property owners or with landlord’s legal expenses insurance and extended criminal law cover.
Feather legal protection is available in two tariffs:
- Basic: €1 million in the EU, €250,000 worldwide
- Advanced: unlimited insurance cover within the EU, €500,000 worldwide
There is no waiting period for Feather’s traffic legal protection. The excess is €300 per year at the start of the insurance and is reduced by €100 with every claim-free year. After a claim, it rises to €500 the following year.
Getsafe
Getsafe also offers a combined private, professional, and traffic legal protection policy. It is available from €15.12 per month/€181.44 per year. Getsafe will also provide you with an individual quote for your insurance.
Getsafe legal protection is only available in one tariff, with unlimited coverage within the EU and a worldwide insured sum of €500,000.
Additional modules include home and property legal protection and extended criminal legal protection.
There are no waiting periods for Getsafe’s traffic legal protection. Extended criminal legal protection in traffic matters is included in the policy as standard and, therefore, at no extra charge.
The excess in the first year of insurance is €300. For every claim-free year, you receive a no-claims discount of €100. After a claim, you pay an excess of €500 the following year.
Conclusion
Traffic legal protection offers you reliable protection against the financial consequences of traffic law disputes. The policies cover all legal costs for traffic law disputes except for criminal offenses, fines, and cases that fall within the scope of liability insurance.
When taking out insurance, you can choose between a combined policy — usually for private, professional, and traffic legal protection — or pure traffic legal protection.
For legal protection insurance in Germany, we recommend the FinTech insurers Feather and Getsafe. Both companies offer excellent benefits at favorable and transparent conditions. You can use their services entirely in English.
Frequently Asked Questions — FAQ
No. Traffic legal protection is voluntary insurance; the legislator does not intervene here. Nevertheless, this insurance is recommended for car owners. In a legal dispute under traffic law, it ensures that you can assert your rights without financial restrictions.
Yes, insurance companies offer legal protection policies for singles and families. In family tariffs, spouses, partners, and children can also be insured. The insurance cover also applies to unmarried adult children who no longer live at home and are completing their first vocational training. Some insurance companies also offer policies in which everyone living in a household can be insured, regardless of family relationships.
With a family tariff, you must ensure that all vehicles in the household are insured. The insurance companies offer tariffs for insuring several cars in their traffic legal protection insurance. This ensures that all family members are insured when they are motorized on the road.
We have prepared a separate article on vehicle insurance in Germany, so we will summarize only the most essential points here.
You require motor vehicle liability insurance. It is compulsory insurance — without liability insurance, you cannot use your vehicle in public spaces. The minimum sums insured are prescribed by law — however, most vehicle insurers offer significantly higher insured sums:
- Personal injury: €7.5 million per injured person
- Property damage: €1.22 million
- Financial losses: €50,000
You can take out full or partial comprehensive insurance for your vehicle voluntarily. Partially comprehensive insurance covers damage caused by storms, fire, explosions, theft of car parts, marten bites and wildlife accidents, burn damage to the car’s wiring, and loss of the vehicle due to theft, robbery, or embezzlement. Comprehensive insurance offers additional cover for an insured vehicle in the event of damage caused by self-inflicted accidents and vandalism.
Motor vehicle insurers structure their fully and partially comprehensive policies differently. Additional benefits include breakdown insurance, liability insurance for rental cars in other European countries (“Mallorca policy”), and discount protection for the no-claims bonus after an insurance claim.