The prospects for legal expenses insurance as a mechanism of ensuring availability of legal services in Russia

Abstract

The subject. Nowadays a variety of civil law studies actively discusses the issues of insuranceregulation. However, legal expenses insurance is unknown to Russian legal doctrine andpractice. The research focuses on legal expenses insurance.The purpose of the article is to reveal a potential that legal and economic instruments have incomparison to other guarantees of unobstructed enjoyment of the rights and legitimate interests.The methodology. It is a comparative law approach that allows to describe the peculiaritiesof legal expenses insurance in foreign countries, outline the criteria to match the existingmodels, determine their similarities and differences as well as benefits and drawbacks. Economicanalysis of law is helpful to evaluate the convenience of a new tool for citizens andits influence on the level of their legal expenses.The results, scope of it’s application. As a result, the article argues that legal expenses insuranceimproves the financial accessibility of qualified legal assistance and stimulates legalactivity, since it does not impose any formal restrictions on the clients, the content of thecontract or the sphere of its application. Meanwhile, the research formulates and characterizessome difficulties that may occur in the course of introduction of this institution toRussian law. Primarily, such obstacles include the low level of insurance culture, the needof significant amendments to legislation in force and the lack of professional expertise inthis field. Despite different political and legal obstacles, it is necessary to create an effectivemodel of legal expenses insurance in Russia in order to improve Russian legal system andform the culture of getting legal services in time.Conclusions. The insurance mechanisms provide citizens with an opportunity to minimizetheir legal and financial risks connected to unforeseeable situations, which require coveringcosts of professional legal assistance. The authors conclude that legal expenses insuranceis able to become an additional guarantee to the right to qualified legal assistance in caseof appropriate adaptation to current conditions of Russian legal life and legal mechanisms.