Legal expenses insurance in Germany

You want to live and enjoy life without worries. But disputes with neighbours, landlords, employers or heirs are often unavoidable and cause high costs and stress. Legal expenses insurance will help you protect yourself in the event of a conflict.

This is a type of insurance that covers solicitors’ fees, legal costs and consultations, providing access to professional legal assistance and protecting the rights and interests of the insured. This type of insurance provides financial support to individuals and companies when resolving a variety of legal issues, such as employment disputes, family matters, property conflicts, consumer rights protection and criminal cases.

It is very difficult to list all the possible cases in which you might need legal protection. Here are a few areas in which legal expenses insurance can help:

• in labour disputes;
• regarding rental matters;
• in matters of road traffic;
• in family matters;
• regarding medical care;
• in maintenance matters;
• marriage-related issues;
• in matters of inheritance;
• in matters of digital life;
• in matters of property;
• analysis of purchase and sale agreements before signing, and others.

Insurance companies most often offer online support through a personal account and telephone support. We recommend that, after concluding a contract with the insurer, you register for a personal account if such an option is available. This way you will be able to communicate with the insurer in the way that is more convenient for you — in writing — and have control of and access to your insurance matters at any time.

You are, of course, free to choose your own lawyer. Alternatively, the insurance company can recommend a specialist from its network. However, it is important to know that legal expenses insurance usually only covers costs up to the amount provided for by the Lawyers’ Remuneration Act (RVG). If the lawyer you choose charges higher fees, you will have to cover the difference yourself.

First and foremost, it covers legal costs and expert fees (this includes the fees of a lawyer, technical expert, appraiser, witness expenses, mediation costs, and bailiff fees).

Further costs for witness fees and the other party’s costs, if you have to bear them, are usually also covered.

The insurance will also cover your expenses for administrative proceedings.

Where necessary, legal expenses insurance will cover your solicitor and interpreter fees abroad, and even travel costs to a foreign court.

You can also receive an interest-free loan for a Strafkaution (bail), up to the amount agreed in your policy.

Yes, legal expenses insurance also pays for solicitor’s fees and court costs, and covers the other side’s costs if you lose the case. Note that the insurer may refuse to pay for legal services in obviously hopeless disputes (for example, if your fault or intent can be easily proven).

In the context of legal protection, an insured event is a specific event or circumstance which, upon its occurrence, entitles the policyholder (the insured person) to receive legal assistance from the insurance company, as provided for in the legal protection policy.

An insured event must be described in the terms of the insurance contract and meet certain criteria established by the insurer.

Examples of insured events in legal protection insurance may include:

Labour disputes: Wrongful dismissal, breach of employment contract, workplace discrimination.
Family matters: Advice from a lawyer; divorce only with a separate add-on option.
Property disputes: Conflicts with neighbours, issues regarding renting.
Consumer protection: Claims regarding substandard goods or services, disputes with suppliers or vendors.
Criminal defence: Accusation of a less serious criminal offence (Vergehen), defence in administrative offences.

For each insured event, the policy defines specific conditions and restrictions, such as the need for prior agreement with the insurer, cover limits, exclusions, etc. The occurrence of an insured event obliges the insurer to provide the insured person with the services stipulated by the policy, such as payment for a lawyer’s services, compensation for legal costs, or the provision of legal advice.

An insurance excess is a specified amount that you will pay once per insurance claim before your insurance policy pays some or all of your claim. The smaller the excess, the more expensive the insurance policy, while the larger the excess, the cheaper the policy will be. That is, you can manage the cost of the insurance policy itself by the size of the excess. Some insurers offer many services for which no excess is charged: for example, telephone legal advice from experienced partner law firms or mediation. If you win a court dispute, the other party will cover your costs and your excess will be reimbursed to you.

A standard waiting period of three months applies to legal protection components. This means that the insured event must occur after the waiting period has expired. Cover without a waiting period usually applies to traffic disputes, claims for damages, defence in criminal cases and in cases involving administrative offences (Ordnungswidrigkeiten), and advice on family and inheritance law. For employment, housing and contract disputes the waiting period is usually three months, and six under some tariffs. However, longer waiting periods also occur and can be up to three years (for example, in the case of a divorce where proceedings have gone to court. Please pay attention to the cover limit).

An insurance advisor will help you choose the best insurance policy for your needs. Book a free consultation.

As a reminder, the waiting period in insurance means that at least three months (longer under some tariffs) must pass between the start of your insurance cover and the beginning of a dispute.

Frequently offered without a waiting period:
protection in criminal and administrative offence cases;
traffic legal protection;
advice on family and inheritance law;
legal protection for damage claims (filing a claim for damages);
legal protection for victims of violent crime.
For employment, housing and contract disputes the waiting period is usually three months, and six under some tariffs.

If you are already involved in a legal dispute and do not know what to do next, some insurance companies also offer free initial telephone legal consultations.

To find a suitable insurance company — fill in the questionnaire and we will find a suitable offer for you.

All cases the insurer has paid for count, including out-of-court ones: after two such cases within 12 months, both you and the insurer are entitled to terminate the contract. Under certain circumstances, the insurance company may terminate the insured person’s policy if several claims have to be settled within a short period of time. The most important things are the costs and the individual situation regarding the contract. With Roland insurance, for example, telephone legal advice is not considered a claim and in many cases already provides clarity. Our consultation will help you decide which legal expenses insurance to choose based on your requirements.

Mediation is an alternative dispute resolution method in which a neutral intermediary (the mediator) helps the parties to a conflict reach a mutually acceptable agreement. Unlike court proceedings, mediation focuses on cooperation and confidentiality, allowing the parties to independently control the process and the outcome. The mediator does not make a decision, but rather facilitates dialogue and mutual understanding between the participants. This process is widely used in family, labour, commercial and other types of disputes, providing swift and flexible solutions without lengthy court proceedings.

Insurance cover comes into effect when you receive the policy and the first premium is paid. It is important to pay your premiums on time.

Insurance companies offer both insurance for specific areas of life and comprehensive cover. Legal expenses insurance is built like building blocks. Simply decide for yourself how extensive your legal expenses insurance should be by choosing the modules: private, housing, traffic or professional disputes.

Legal protection insurance must be cancelled no later than three months before the end of the contract term.
You can submit the cancellation yourself or we can do it for you.
Have your insurance needs changed? Do you need other services? Contact us 24/7. Together, we are sure to find a good solution to adapt your insurance cover to your current life.

You need to choose a family tariff that applies to spouses, children, partners and other people living in the same household.

Legal protection insurance can be taken out for a contract term of one, three or five years. It is automatically extended for another year unless you cancel the contract (you must give notice of this 3 months before the end of the contract term).

In the event of a dispute, you proceed as follows:

You can contact a lawyer directly, who will help you resolve the conflict.
You may also contact the insurance company’s support service, which will provide you with initial assistance in resolving the issue and, if necessary, refer you to a specialist lawyer.
Next you will receive legal and personal advice, and a lawyer will inform you about the next steps.

If you should ever find yourself in a situation where you need to pay bail (Strafkaution), legal expenses insurance will come in very handy. The insurance company will pay the bail for you (though only as a loan — Strafkautionsdarlehen), both in your country of residence and abroad. To find out which insurance packages cover bail costs and to what amount, you can book a free consultation.

Insurance companies most often offer online and telephone support. If your German is not very good, be sure to check whether the online support option is available with your chosen insurance company when taking out a policy. This will allow you to interact with the insurer in a way that is more convenient for you: in writing via your personal account, with control of and access to your insurance matters at any time. You can manage your policies, submit claims and check the status of cases via your personal account without the need to call or visit the insurance company’s office.

According to the Stiftung Warentest test of 16 June 2026, a Privat + Beruf + Verkehr package for a family costs between €251 and €978 a year with a €150 excess. The cheapest offer rated “gut” is €299 a year. Standalone Verkehrsrechtsschutz starts at about €100 a year. Waiving the €150 excess raises the premium by an average of €180 a year.

No. Immigration-law disputes are excluded by every insurer: ARAG (ARB 2026, § 3 (2) o), ROLAND (clause 6.2.24), ADVOCARD (§ 3), ÖRAG. Extending a residence permit, a refusal by the Ausländerbehörde, Niederlassungserlaubnis and family reunification all fall outside the cover of any standard tariff, and there is no separate module for these risks on the market. What remains is Beratungshilfe, Prozesskostenhilfe and a lawyer at your own expense.

Under § 128 VVG, when refusing on the grounds of poor prospects of success the insurer must point you to the expert procedure for resolving the disagreement. If it failed to do so, or if the contract contains no such procedure, the need for legal protection is deemed established by law: the insurer can no longer refuse on the grounds of “no prospect of success”, but other grounds for refusal remain. So a refusal letter should be checked above all for whether it contains that reference. According to the GDV, refusals for lack of prospects of success amount to less than 0.3 % of requests.