Do You Need Legal Insurance in Germany? (2026)

Which legal insurance policy is worth buying?

The catalogue lists eleven legal expenses tariffs. These four cover the four reasons people actually buy this line: the cheapest verified premium, the market benchmark with the widest module range, the cheapest single-module entry, and the only tariff with English documents. All four carry a three-month waiting period, and none of them is required by law.

Sorted by annual premium, not our recommendation. The default view is our ranking, weights published below.

Sorted by cover limit, not our recommendation. The default view is our ranking, weights published below.

Sorted by excess, not our recommendation. The default view is our ranking, weights published below.

Sorted by notice period, not our recommendation. The default view is our ranking, weights published below.

What modules does German legal insurance come in?

German legal cover is not one product but a set of modules. What you pay depends on how many you bolt together, so two quotes are only comparable when they contain the same modules.

If you rent in Germany, the dispute you are most likely to have is a tenancy one: the annual service-charge statement, the deposit, a notice to quit for the landlord's own use. That is exactly the module the cheapest bundle leaves out. HUK-Coburg does not sell its landlord module online at all, and ERGO adds a Mietnomaden module for landlords. When tenancy law is the reason you are buying, DEVK Komfort at EUR 378.72 a year with a EUR 1,000,000 cover sum is the catalogued tariff that includes it as standard.

How long is the waiting period and how big is the excess?

All eleven catalogued tariffs carry a three-month waiting period. During it the insurer pays nothing, and every tariff also excludes disputes that already existed before the contract began. Legal cover is therefore not something you buy once the problem exists. Two exceptions stretch the wait further: at ROLAND the Beruf module waits six months in the Komfort tariff, and at ARAG family law needs an add-on with a one to three year wait.

The excess is the second number. The market runs on just two values: EUR 150 at ARAG, D.A.S., DEVK, ERGO, Allianz, HUK-Coburg, ÖRAG, Getsafe and WGV, and EUR 300 at ROLAND and Adam Riese. The low premiums at ROLAND (EUR 255.72 a year) and Adam Riese (EUR 129.12 a year) are partly bought with that. ROLAND drops the excess for each claim-free year, and HUK-Coburg lets you pick between EUR 150 and EUR 300.

The third number nobody reads is the notice period. HUK-Coburg, ARAG, ROLAND, DEVK, ERGO, Allianz, ÖRAG, D.A.S. and WGV all want three months. Only Adam Riese and Getsafe are cancellable daily, and even there the three-month waiting period stays.

How much does legal insurance cost in Germany?

For a Privat, Beruf and Verkehr bundle the verified annual premiums in the catalogue run from EUR 201.76 at HUK-Coburg to EUR 378.72 at DEVK. In between sit ROLAND Basis at EUR 255.72 with a EUR 300 excess, Adam Riese XL at EUR 243.36 and ARAG Komfort at EUR 343.47. The DEVK figure is the highest of these, but it is the only one that includes the Wohnen module.

A single module costs far less. Traffic-only cover starts at EUR 4.13 a month at ARAG, Privat-only at EUR 10.76 a month at Adam Riese and EUR 13.33 a month at ARAG. At the other end, Adam Riese's all-modules configuration is EUR 72.57 a month.

Families pay less than two single contracts. ARAG quotes EUR 404.08 a year for a family at age 40 against EUR 343.47 for one person, and at DEVK the family price equals the couple price at EUR 35.72 a month. Four catalogued insurers publish no reference price at all: ERGO, Allianz, ÖRAG and D.A.S. quote only through their own calculator or through agents.

One note when comparing: ERGO Rechtsschutz Leistungs-GmbH underwrites both the ERGO tariffs and the D.A.S. ones, so those two brands share a risk carrier.

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