4.1 Conduct in the insured event / fulfilment of obligations, Legal Expenses Insurance, Premium

Obligations are all the rules of conduct that you and the insured persons must observe in order to retain the entitlement to cover.

4.1.1 What must you do when an insured event occurs and you need cover? 4.1.1.1 You must notify us of the insured event without delay, by telephone if need be. (“Without delay” does not necessarily mean “immediately”, but “without culpable hesitation, that is, as quickly as reasonably possible”.) 4.1.1.2 You must  inform us fully and truthfully about all circumstances of the insured event, and  state all evidence, and  make documents available to us on request.

4.1.1.3 You must, where possible, agree measures that incur costs with us, so far as that is reasonable for you. (Examples of measures that incur costs: instructing a lawyer, bringing an action or lodging an appeal) German law applies to the contract. The German wording of the conditions alone is binding; this translation is provided for understanding only.

4.1.1.4 When the insured event occurs you must, where possible, take care to avert and mitigate the loss, see section 82 of the German Insurance Contract Act (VVG).

4.1.2 We confirm to you the scope of cover that exists for the specific insured event. If, however, you take measures to enforce your legal interests  before we have confirmed the scope of cover, and  do such measures give rise to costs? Then we bear only the costs we would have had to bear had we confirmed cover before these measures were initiated.

4.1.3 You may choose the lawyer. We choose the lawyer  if you request this, or  if you do not name a lawyer and the immediate instruction of a lawyer appears necessary to us. If we choose the lawyer, we instruct them in your name. We are not responsible for the lawyer's work.

4.1.4 After instructing the lawyer you must do the following: inform your lawyer  fully and truthfully,  state the evidence,  give the information possible,  obtain the necessary documents, and give us information on the status of your matter on request.

4.1.5 If you intentionally breach one of the obligations named in 4.1.1 and 4.1.4, you lose your cover. In the case of a grossly negligent breach of an obligation we are entitled to reduce our payment in proportion to the severity of your fault. (Example of “grossly negligent conduct”: someone breaches the required care to an unusually high degree.) If you breach an obligation to provide information or to clarify after the insured event has occurred, this too can lead to the complete or partial loss of cover. This presupposes, however, that we have previously informed you of these duties by separate notice in text form (example: letter or email). Cover remains in place if you prove that you did not breach the obligations through gross negligence. Cover also remains in place in the following case: You prove that the breach of obligation was not the cause  of the occurrence of the insured event,  of the establishment of the insured event, or  of the establishment or extent of our payment (for example: you did not agree the lodging of the appeal with us. On subsequent examination, however, we would have confirmed the assumption of costs even if it had been agreed in good time.) Cover does not remain in place if you breached your obligation fraudulently.

4.1.6 You may assign your claims to insurance benefits only with our consent. (“Assign” means: you transfer your claims to insurance benefits that you have against us to your lawyer or to another person.) Our consent requires text form. German law applies to the contract. The German wording of the conditions alone is binding; this translation is provided for understanding only. Exception: the requirement of consent does not apply where you have claims against us for payment of money (for example: you have exceptionally paid a court costs invoice in advance.). Where we are to release you from cost invoices not yet paid, there is no claim for payment of money.

4.1.7 If another person (for example: your opponent in the proceedings) must reimburse you costs of legal action, this claim passes to us. But only if we have already paid the costs. You must hand over to us the documents we need to enforce this claim. You must also cooperate in enforcing the claim if we so request. If you breach this duty intentionally and we therefore do not obtain reimbursement of these costs from the others, we need not reimburse any further costs beyond the costs already paid. If you acted with gross negligence, we are entitled to reduce the costs in proportion to the severity of your fault. You must prove that you did not act with gross negligence. (Example of “grossly negligent conduct”: someone breaches the care required in ordinary dealings to an unusually high degree).

4.1.8 Has another person (for example: your opponent in the proceedings) reimbursed you costs of legal action that we had previously paid? Then you must repay these costs to us.