Indemnity insurance


SRA unveils sweeping reforms to indemnity insurance and compensation fund

23 March 2018

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has today unveiled its second attempt to reduce the compulsory level of professional indemnity insurance to £500,000 – although conveyancers would have to secure £1m in cover. It also wants to turn the Compensation Fund explicitly into a ‘hardship’ fund and ban relatively wealthy people from claiming on it.


High Court lifts threat to solicitor in wake of former partner’s mortgage fraud

23 March 2018

A threat to make a former partner of a corrupt solicitor who was part of a £30m mortgage fraud pay £205,000 in damages has been lifted when the High Court struck out a claim by one of the mortgage companies.


Borrower’s solicitor not liable for bank’s loss because it should have realised her error

1 March 2018

A bank that relied on inaccurate information supplied by its borrower’s solicitor should not have won a negligence claim against her, because it failed to carry out its own checks, the Supreme Court has ruled. It restored the ruling of the judge at first instance, who held that the bank did not act reasonably.


Law firm was negligent in property purchase but clients would have gone ahead anyway, court rules

23 February 2018

A Kent law firm was negligent for failing to advise properly on a mortgage and valuation report, but this did not cause a couple in Canterbury to buy a house suffering from subsidence, a circuit judge has ruled. He said it was not the firm’s duty to “advise about structural matters when there was a structural survey available”.


Break your silence on legal aid cuts, lawyers tell Legal Services Board

22 February 2018

If the Legal Services Board is serious about promoting access to justice it must end its silence on the legal aid cuts, lawyers’ organisations have said. The Bar Council accused the oversight regulator of acting like “another department of government” by refusing to comment.


Law firms secure 18-month indemnity deals in ‘soft’ insurance market

13 February 2018

Law firms have taken advantage of a soft insurance market to secure 18-month professional indemnity insurance deals at a “very good” rate, a report has found. More firms were asking about additional cover to protect solicitors against defence costs in disciplinary proceedings, in the wake of the Leigh Day case.


Government to direct leaseholders who want to sue conveyancers for negligence

5 January 2018

The government is to ensure that leaseholders know how to sue their conveyancer where they may have been negligent over escalating ground rents, it has revealed. It is one of several new measures to cut out unfair and abusive practices within the leasehold system, announced just before Christmas.


Barrister peer to face negligence claim alongside leading firm despite civil restraining order

14 December 2017

The High Court has struck out a negligence claim brought against a barrister peer for breaching an extended civil restraint order – only to then permit the claimant to issue a further claim form. Max Couper is seeking to sue both Lord Thomas of Gresford – the Liberal Democrats’ shadow attorney general – and Irwin Mitchell.


Court of Appeal finds firm negligent for failing to warn over risk of tax avoidance scheme

12 December 2017

A firm of solicitors should have warned a client of the significant risk that a tax avoidance scheme would not withstand a challenge from HM Revenue & Customs, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The client ended up having to pay £11.3m to settle with HMRC and issued proceedings against his solicitors the same month.


Supreme Court to examine proof needed in solicitors’ negligence case

11 December 2017

The Supreme Court is to review what needs to be proved when a solicitor is sued for failing to advise a client of a potential claim, in the latest of a raft of cases involving Raleys, the controversial but now defunct Barnsley law firm that acted for thousands on miners.

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