This is standard in the U.S., too. Liability insurance certainly has its merits. My wife fell down some stairs at the apartment we used to live in; they had bad rails and were very slippery (they should have had rattan). Our renters insurance didn't cover it, since it wasn't in our apartment. She was fine, but her laptop was badly damaged. We made a claim with our landlord's liability insurance company and were compensated for half the damage. As a result, and nobody went to court.

Of course, by definition purchasing any sort of insurance is an "expected loss": insurance has to include some sort of markup, otherwise the insurance companies couldn't stay solvent.