Indemnity insurance

National law firm Irwin Mitchell has been granted summary judgment in a professional negligence claim because the retainer prevented its former client assigning his cause of action.

Since abolition of the common renewal date, practices have been free to choose when to renew their professional indemnity insurance. We estimate that around 30-40% now renew between March and April.

The High Court has ordered a defunct Manchester law firm which failed to register a restriction against a house at the Land Registry to pay over £985,000 in damages for negligence.

A High Court judge has refused international firm DLA Piper’s request to stay a €12m professional negligence claim brought against it by a Russian cruise ship company.

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.