Solicitors Indemnity Insurance

Solicitors Indemnity Insurance is a requirement for many types of businesses including the legal profession, but while some professional indemnity insurance (PII) is subject to only cursory or low level regulation fortunately (or unfortunately depending on which side of the fence you sit), Solicitors indemnity insurance is highly regulated, and not every insurer is able to provide or willing to meet the terms required.

All practising solicitors and soliciting firms are required by law to hold solicitors professional indemnity insurance according to the Solicitors' Indemnity (Enactment) Rules 2007. These rules were put into place to ensure consistency for the legal profession are updated from time to time. The latest amendments can be found here on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) website for anyone looking deeper into the subject.

The SRA is a regulatory authority that governs the conduct of the legal profession and issues guidelines and best practices for the protection of both consumers and Solicitors and law firms as well.

Solicitors Professional Indemnity Insurance Providers

Potential providers of solicitors indemnity insurance and legal indemnity insurance need to meet a stringent set criterion and in the very first instance need to be an authorised insurer and legally be able to conduct UK insurance business (and be regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)).

In addition to being an authorised insurer, providers must also then become a qualifying insurer. Essentially what this means is that the insurance provider must agree to only offer policies that meet set and defined minimum terms and conditions to ensure that any policy holder does not find themselves inadequately insured due to loopholes or small print in the policies. If the insurance provider then meets the above conditions then they are also required to sign a qualifying insurer’s agreement.

Qualifying insurance companies must also agree to participate in the Assigned Risks Pool which is set up for Solicitors and companies who through their existing track record may find obtaining solicitors indemnity insurance through normal channels impossible or it is financial punitive to do so. The Law Society provides advice here for anyone finding it challenging to secure PII.

The Law Society also provides a defined practice management criteria and accreditation (Lexcel accreditation) which could potentially help lower professional indemnity costs. Whilst this cannot of course be guaranteed, historically commercial insurance companies do tend to look favourably on businesses that work to defined professional standards.

Clearly it should be noted however that the minimum terms and conditions are only going to be one aspect of a solicitors indemnity insurance policy so a simple cost comparison approach is probably not best as every insurer will of course be able to add additional policy terms. Due diligence dictates that you compare terms to ensure you are judging like for like policies and conditions.

In order to obtain a professional indemnity insurance quote you will need to either approach one of the qualified insurers direct or go an insurance broker that has one of the qualifying insurers on their books or visit our page listing qualifying insurers providing solicitors indemnity insurance.