Chancery Lane unveils composite PII form

The Law Society has asked brokers and insurers to adopt a composite proposal form for professional indemnity insurance (PII) in an effort to simplify the process of obtaining multiple quotes.

The Society said it had secured support for its composite form from ‘some of the major names providing PII coverage to solicitors’. It declined to reveal names.

Chief executive Desmond Hudson said: ‘The need to fill in the same or similar information about the firm to satisfy the requirements of different insurers seems unnecessarily time-consuming and extremely frustrating.’ He said that Ireland has successfully introduced a common proposal form for many of the same insurers.

'Some, though not all, insurers and brokers have helped design this form. The result is a composite form that has a sufficient degree of commonality that it should be broadly acceptable to qualifying insurers with minimal supplementary questions. From working with those insurers and brokers willing to collaborate we are seeing parts of the PII sector embrace this approach, for the benefit of our members,’ Hudson said.

The Society said it would publish details of companies that will accept the composite form on its website throughout the renewal process. Solicitors are urged to ask their broker and insurers if they accept the form when seeking cover.

• Banks hit by last week’s computer problems have promised to indemnify solicitors against any losses caused by the breakdown, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said. The regulator in turn promised that no disciplinary action would be taken against firms caught out by the system failures.