Indemnity insurance

A sole practitioner in his 70s has been struck off after practising for over six months without professional indemnity insurance, despite telling others he had cover.

The High Court has rejected an “unmeritorious” negligence claim against a barrister brought by a former law lecturer acting as a litigant in person.

A law firm that settled a negligence claim is entitled to recoup some of what it paid from the counsel it instructed, even though proceedings against him were dropped, the High Court has ruled.

A barrister of “good judgement” who had to make rapid decisions in a “pressurised environment” was not negligent even though it turned out her client was wrongly convicted.

The market for professional indemnity insurance is likely to continue to worsen but future premium rises should not be at the average of 17% seen this autumn, a leading broker has predicted.

There was no implied retainer between a businessman who found himself on the wrong end of an expensive short-term loan and the law firm acting for the lender, the High Court has ruled.

The High Court has refused to aggregate as one claim various actions a Yorkshire law firm’s indemnity insurer is facing because of a multi-million pound fraud run by one of its partners.

Negligent conveyancers should not be able to avoid liability because it emerges later that their client was engaged in mortgage fraud, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The Law Society has expressed sympathy with professional indemnity insurers over their call for the right to cancel policies when solicitors do not pay the premium or excess.

Indemnity insurers have warned solicitors that they will suffer the consequences of their regulator maintaining that policies cannot be cancelled for non-payment of premiums or excesses.