How does the legal protection guarantee work?

The guarantee legal protection is an insurance that allows you to benefit from the coverage of your procedural costs or to obtain services in case of dispute with a third party. For example: you have taken a seasonal rental and the landlord claims additional costs for damage that you dispute.

The services may concern a judicial procedure (criminal, civil or administrative) or an amicable settlement procedure, initiated at your initiative or at the initiative of your opponent.

Legal protection can be guaranteed in many areas of daily life: consumption, housing, neighborhood, work or even disputes with a professional.

The areas covered and the conditions for intervention are specified in the contract.

The legal protection guarantee is an insurance optional.

However, some insurance policies may automatically include legal protection (for example, in some home or car insurance policies).

In this case, this guarantee must be clearly identified in the contract.

You can take out the legal protection guarantee for yourself or for your whole family.

The contract must specify the persons covered by the guarantee.

Depending on the contract, the coverage may also cover people who usually live in your household, including the person you are in a relationship with or your dependent children.

The legal protection guarantee must be offered in an autonomous contract or in a separate chapter of a contract subscribed for another guarantee (car, home, etc.), with the indication of its contribution.

You can therefore take out the legal expenses guarantee as a stand-alone contract with an insurance company or a bank.

You can also take out the legal protection guarantee with another insurance contract (car, home for example) or with a service different from the insurance (credit cards, membership cards for an association).

The legal protection guarantee can be applied when you are confronted with a dispute with another person (private individual, professional or administration).

For example, it can be a disagreement about the performance of a contract, the challenge of an invoice or a conflict with a neighbor.

The intervention of the guarantee is not necessarily conditional on a negative response prior to a complaint. It may intervene as soon as there is a dispute.

The conditions of intervention are specified in the contract.

The contract may provide for a waiting period.

The waiting period is a period that begins on the date of subscription of the contract during which the guarantee cannot be used for certain disputes.

Disputes that arise during this period are generally not supported.

The length of the waiting period varies according to the contracts and the areas covered. It must be stated in the contract.

The contract may provide for warranty exclusions.

For example, the legal protection guarantee may not cover:

• disputes already known at the time of contract subscription
• certain areas of law (e.g. family law or tax litigation)
• disputes the amount of which is below a threshold set by the contract.

Exclusions must be clearly stated in the insurance contract.

The guarantee legal protection provides you with services in the event of a dispute with a third party and covers your legal costs. The services provided under the guarantee may vary from one insurer to another.

The legal protection guarantee generally provides for reimbursement limits.

The contract may lay down:

• an overall coverage ceiling for each dispute
• ceilings for certain expenses, such as legal fees or expertise fees.

These limits must be indicated in the insurance contract.

You must inform the insurer of the existence of a dispute between you and a third party within the time and in the form provided for in the contract.

You must also inform them of your needs in terms of procedural costs or services.

You can conduct legal consultations or pleadings before the claim is declared, but in order for the insurer to agree to cover them, you will need to prove that they were urgent. For example, if you urgently mandate a commissioner of justice to find a situation in order to constitute evidence.

If there is a disagreement between you and the insurer on how to manage your dispute, you can call on an arbitrator appointed by mutual agreement with the insurer.

If you have not been able to appoint an arbitrator by mutual agreement with the insurer, you may refer the matter to the President of the court. It must deal with the case under the urgent procedure.

The insurer must bear the costs of this procedure, but the president of the court may decide to charge you if he considers that your approach is abusive. For example, if the insurer refuses to accompany you in the legal action because it considers that it has no chance of success because it is prescribed and that the president of the judicial tribunal agrees with this observation.

You can decide to take legal action at your own expense, despite the unfavorable opinion of the arbitrator.

If you get a better result in court than what was proposed by the insurer and the arbitrator, the insurer must reimburse you for the costs of the proceedings, within the limits of what is provided for in the contract.

In the event of a conflict of interest between the insurer and you, or in the event of a disagreement on how to settle the dispute, the insurer must inform you of your right to choose the lawyer and the possibility of referring the matter to the arbitrator or the president of the court.

There is a conflict of interest between the insurer and you when you need to use the Legal Protection Guarantee services to manage a dispute between you and the insurer. For example, you ask the insurer to cover your legal fees for an action brought against it following a denial of compensation.

The insurer must inform you of the cost of the legal protection contribution.

If the contract is not signed independently, the amount of the contribution must be clearly indicated in the specific chapter devoted to it.

The amount of the contribution varies according to the scope of the guarantees, the areas covered and the ceilings for covering the costs.