Why Take Out Legal Cover in South Africa in 2024?
Is legal cover necessary in South Africa?
- Yes, because the law is complicated.
- Legal issues can unravel without the knowledge of an experienced lawyer.
- Remember that a claim against your business can cripple its reputation.
- Legal guidance is necessary when running a business successfully in South Africa.
- In business, you’ll come up against dishonest employees resulting in legal processes.
- Court proceeding costs are huge and legal cover takes care of that
- You get fair compensation for employment disputes
Even Wills Cost a Fortune – Legal Cover Can Help
Attorneys are expensive and this is precisely why so few people use them. Those who have had a lawyer draw up a simple Will drawn up know how expensive that is. So they’ve rather resorted to a more affordable option – legal cover.
Other people simply give up on finding legal support. And the result is lost claims, broken agreements and even jail time. Prepaid personal legal insurance solves this affordability problem.
Don’t for one minute under-estimate the stress you can endure brought about by legal matters. There can be no guarantee of what the outcome will be with these criminal- and civil suits. By having legal cover you can leave the outcome in the skilled hands of a lawyer. You get top legal expertise.
We are all going to need the services of an attorney at some or other time. However, not every legal matter is going to require the use of an attorney. There are situations though, where you aren’t going to want to go it alone simply because you don’t know enough about the law.
A Monthly Premium gets you Good Legal Representation
Good legal representation from paying a monthly legal cover premium, can get you out of a tricky situation. The lawyer that will attend to your legal issues operates in a network along with other legal professionals, and your lawyer will be in contact with the right people to get action.
Legal cover is also known as pre-paid legal services, and the idea is to cover a policy holder against the costs of legal action from another person. You get ‘before-the-event’ and ‘after-the-event’ insurance. ‘Before-the-event’ insurance covers a person for potential litigation costs which could be incurred in the future. With ‘After-the-Event’ insurance, you get cover for an event which has already happened.
Increases in Legal Expenses
In South Africa and all over the world, cover for legal expenses has increased significantly. You’ll see that legal cover is often sold as an addition to your household insurance. In South Africa the Short-term Insurance Act No. 53 of 1998 provides for legal expenses insurance. The Act includes a Liability policy – the kind of liability that can arise from a person insuring himself against professional negligence.
It is possible to get legal expenses insurance in South Africa. There are a number of insurance companies in South Africa, such as Clientele Legal, who offer their customers niche legal expenses insurance policies. These can include civil matters, criminal matters, labour matters, bail applications, mediation and litigation.
Legal Protection when you Need It
Most people know other types of insurance, such as life insurance, but recently legal cover emerged. Legal insurance can save you a lot of money and give you peace of mind to know that you have legal protection when you need it.
We all know in South Africa, that legal problems are very common, and that they are also very expensive. Everyone of us will come across instances when we just wish that we had bought legal insurance. It’s not expensive either, and you can get excellent legal cover for in the region of R120 a month. When you have legal insurance, you’ll have a qualified lawyer on your side and your legal fees will at least be paid for
As we’ve said, legal insurance policies can be quite different, depending on where you get your policy from. Some insurance companies may require that you pay a deductible each time you have a legal issue and some might have exclusions for which you can’t get legal help. In South Africa, whether you are rich or poor, there is a legal insurance plan for you that will fit your budget.
There is no doubt that legal cover can save you thousands of bucks. Just make sure you understand what legal cover you’re getting as some insurance companies offer partial legal assistance while other will cover everything. Full legal cover gives you assistance for all these expensive and often unforeseen circumstances.
What a Legal Cover Policy Should Include
- Offer telephonic legal advice
- Advice and services with debt
- Drafting of standard agreements
- Help with judgements and administration orders
- Bail applications
- Assistance with divorce
- Help with child custody and child maintenance
Do research because you’ll find there are a number of excellent insurance providers in South Africa which offer a legal plan which will minimise stress when dealing with opposition from another person or company.
Specialised Legal Cover
Some of them cover criminal matters and tackle more serious issues such as rape and murder. They also tackle civil matters – these are for ‘less serious’ things such as motor vehicle accidents, neighbour disputes and things such as disciplinary hearings etc. A specialised company such as the Automobile Association will offer dedicated legal advice to their members. Typically this will be advice and assistance for buying and selling cars, accident damage recovery as well as other motoring issues.
Plenty of Legal Cover at an Affordable Rate
At an insurer such as Hollard for instance, you can get up to about R200 000 coverage per matter for premiums of about R120 per month.
Finding the right legal insurance will take up a little bit of your time, but there are insurance cover comparison sites that do the work for you in comparing different insurance companies and the legal cover they provide.
These sites will help you find comparable quotes suitable for your needs. Provide one or two details for them and one of their authorised financial service providers will send you free quotes so that you can get legal cover that suits your needs.
All info was correct at time of publishing
