Lawyers advised to shop for best indemnity cover deal

Double indemnity: solicitors pay highly for insurance

Solicitors are paying up to five times as much as other professionals for their indemnity policies and should shop around for the best deal, a leading broker warned this week.Michael Rendell a director with Lloyds broker PYV, said average high street solicitors pay 4.5% of their fee income on policies.This figure is double the average paid by high street independent financial advisers, and probably almost five times more than high street accountants, he said.Mr Rendell said: 'Perhaps as a result of conveyancing claims made in the early 1990s, solicitors have a poorer than average record compared with other professions.

It is evident that they are still being heavily penalised for "past performance".'Insurance premiums are primarily based on fee income, areas of specialisation and claims records.

Mr Rendell recommended that firms should shop around.Meanwhile, the professional negligence pre-action protocol came into force last week.

The protocol differs from others in two key respects: first, it makes provision for the parties to negotiate, unless the claim is denied in its entirety.Secondly, whereas earlier protocols made it clear that letters of claim do not have the same status as statements of case, the new protocol says that if letters of claim differ from subsequent statements in subsequent court proceedings, the court may impose sanctions.Jeremy Fleming